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French Rugby: Six Nations 'will take place'
By PA
France Rugby Federation president Bernard Laporte has insisted this season’s Guinness Six Nations Championship “will take place”. The World Rugby vice-chairman also said there will be an expanded coronavirus testing programme for the tournament, while each country will have “a Covid manager”.
France’s government is demanding reassurances on safety from England and Ireland before allowing its national side to visit those countries during the Six Nations. Only the tournament’s opening fixture against Italy in Rome on February 6 has been approved by Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu.
The French authorities have concerns over the soaring number of coronavirus cases in the UK and Ireland and have already barred their clubs from taking part in European competition this month.
The Six Nations held talks with Parisian officials earlier this week, and discussions will be ongoing as organisers attempt to convince the government in France that sufficient coronavirus protocols are in place.
It is highly unlikely the tournament would go ahead without France, who play Ireland in Dublin on February 14 and England at Twickenham on March 13. But Laporte has moved to ease fears, stating in an interview with the franceinfo website: “I understand some are sceptical, but it will take place.
“Firstly, because we had during the autumn (Nations Cup) put in place a protocol which worked very, very well. The proof is that as soon as a team, in this case Fiji, were detected with Covid cases, they were out of the competition. It worked well.
“There is going to be a Six Nations protocol. Once again, all of this makes us very optimistic. We will go further, there will be even more tests. We adapt to the conditions, but it’s the same principle – a real health bubble. A lot of organisation, a lot of foresight, with a Covid manager in each nation. I repeat, it worked well in the autumn, it will work well during this Six Nations time.”
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The boy needs to bulk up if wants to play 10 or 11 to handle those hits, otherwise he could always make a brilliant reserve for the wings if he stays away from the stretcher.
Go to commentsIn another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
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