If you stopped England v virtually any other side, you'd immediately lose masses of TV revenue and interest and the competition would die. The fact every team plays every other is what makes it special, so the two division nonsense would scupper it.Most of the nations want to play and beat England and if they didn't have that opportunity it would devalue it for them too.As for Italy, every team goes through good spells and bad spells, they'll get better again. Georgia could make a case for expansion to 7 Nations but the clubs would be frustrated at yet another International weekend. I wouldn't add the likes of Japan etc as the distances involved would make it unreasonable.The tournament is interesting and most teams have a chance of beating anyone else.
The rock and hard place is that the 5Nations/6Nations is such a good tournament it would be a shame to see it go or being watered down through promotion and relegation. But the reality is that the international game needs to be opened up to encourage more countries to pay and to play at a better level. I don't mean immediately but that needs to be the aim. But that may come at the expense of the 6nations.
Quote from: peter w on March 22, 2017, 08:46:26 PMThe rock and hard place is that the 5Nations/6Nations is such a good tournament it would be a shame to see it go or being watered down through promotion and relegation. But the reality is that the international game needs to be opened up to encourage more countries to pay and to play at a better level. I don't mean immediately but that needs to be the aim. But that may come at the expense of the 6nations.How about a European Championship every 4 years like the football where it replaces the Six Nations just for that season or would that clash with the Lions?
Denny Solomona commits to England.
Quote from: aev on March 29, 2017, 09:03:00 AMDenny Solomona commits to England. Came on to post this, I think this now has to signal the end of Mike Brown so Daly and/or Watson can move to 15 and we'll have the other one and Nowell competing with Solomona on the wings.
Quote from: paul_e on March 29, 2017, 09:30:44 AMQuote from: aev on March 29, 2017, 09:03:00 AMDenny Solomona commits to England. Came on to post this, I think this now has to signal the end of Mike Brown so Daly and/or Watson can move to 15 and we'll have the other one and Nowell competing with Solomona on the wings.Wondered about this a few pages back. Certainly looks the part in the clips I've seen on Rugby Aviva Prem. He's only 23 so has plenty of time to acclimatise to Union, too.Another Jason Robinson?
Not seen much of him. What's his style?
Quote from: nigel on March 29, 2017, 05:59:33 PMQuote from: paul_e on March 29, 2017, 09:30:44 AMQuote from: aev on March 29, 2017, 09:03:00 AMDenny Solomona commits to England. Came on to post this, I think this now has to signal the end of Mike Brown so Daly and/or Watson can move to 15 and we'll have the other one and Nowell competing with Solomona on the wings.Wondered about this a few pages back. Certainly looks the part in the clips I've seen on Rugby Aviva Prem. He's only 23 so has plenty of time to acclimatise to Union, too.Another Jason Robinson?Very good finisher, loads of pace and good with the ball in hand but I've not seen teams target him defensively yet. I suspect he'll go to Argentina now.