Loose Pass: The Six Nations’ ‘respectless smack in the face’ and the need to stop punishing ‘rugby accidents’
France and Ireland will kick off the 2026 Six Nations on a Thursday night.
This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with the calendar, Wales’ internal squabbles and a tale of two heads…
No thanks to Thursday
As hundreds, thousands of the paying public has already made clear, the decision to start next year’s Six Nations on a Thursday is not a call that does any part of the game any service at all. And not just any game either, it is – with respect to the others – THE game of the tournament as the formbooks currently stand.
Irish fans, many of whom now need at least two working days off (expect Paris’ co-working spaces to be humming that week as well as their hostelries) to follow their team are, naturally, particularly upset.
But it’s the circumstances surrounding the decision that are concerning. Ostensibly, the move has been made to avoid a clash with the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics. But who asked for that? Is this the IOC politely requesting that rugby, an Olympic sport, does not do anything to dampen down the Olympic festivities? And why not move it to Saturday? Or Sunday? Are the broadcasters really so chock-full that there’s no room the entire weekend for a huge and immensely fan-friendly rugby match? And while on the subject, why are we making it so hard for the die-hard – given the current circumstances, this epithet really applies – Welsh fans to support their team in Dublin two weeks later? Not to mention those Irish fans from provinces other than Leinster, who would now have to take Friday off to go and have a good shout at the Aviva.
The cull of one of the rest weeks sits uncomfortably too. Again, the reasons are impracticality: namely that the pointless Nations Cup foisted upon us by World Rugby chews up an extra week in the calendar. The Six Nations bends to something that carries barely one per cent of the resonance, tradition, fan engagement and simple excitement that the Six Nations brings to the table.
But that doesn’t just mean a rest week less for the Six Nations, it’s a rest week less for the players, who then have to return to juggling domestic and European duties before resuming international duties in June/July… and on and on it goes. It’s a thoroughly respectless smack in the face to a huge number of the players – that precious commodity that is the raw material for the administrators’ and broadcasters’ shiny product but which so often is quickly forgotten when it comes to stuffing a bloated fixture list into a slim-fit calendar – who voiced their ‘extensive concerns’ already about workload last year, or who have spoken of the need for two rest weeks.
The Six Nations has been a cash cow in rugby’s portfolio in both financial and non-financial terms, since long before professionalism hit us. It brings fans, colour, quality and it packs out stadia. It’s been sold out here, kow-towing to an artificial tournament with none of its colour and trying to make sense of a calendar devoid of common sense.
Will four become three?
Things have come to a head in Wales. To torture that metaphor a little more, that head could well burst shortly. Goodness knows what will come out, but it is not pleasant and it will take a fair bit of cleaning up.
Whether the administration survives and gets to push through its agenda is not clear, but offering a million more in central funding support to two regions than the other two is unlikely to unify a rugby landscape riven with divisions, yet does appear to be a political play to divide and conquer. If either of the Ospreys or Scarlets blinks, the other will be horribly isolated.
Or out of existence, which is almost impossible to imagine. No elite rugby in Swansea, Neath or Llanelli? Inconceivable. The same applies to Cardiff, the WRU has seen to that. Newport has always been the place associated with the words ‘cut’, ‘four’, and ‘three’. But shrewdly, perhaps (or under some duress) the Dragons have jumped into the protective arms of the WRU, which could not now opt to pull the plug on the Dragons without having performed a credibility-costing volte face.
But something is going to happen, it has to. And the refusal to maintain the storyline that there will definitely be four regions next season is the clearest sign yet that it may even already have happened, or been braced for, behind the scenes.
It’s poignant then, that this weekend’s European double header should take place in Cardiff, a weekend in which the stadium is likely to be even fuller for the two games than it was four the two back-to-back derby matches a month or so ago. The Principality Stadium remains one of Europe’s finest venues, even at 25 years old. It’s hosted some of Wales‘ finest moments. When, or even whether, it will do so again is a deeply troubling question at present.
Come on…
One game, two head contacts, two red cards. One entirely incidental, one which was at best a bit of a cheap shot. How do these two acts come out with the same outcome on the same day from the same officials?
Danny Southworth could have got lower, no question. But he wrapped his arms around his opponent – who was also sunk from his full stance – held on, and brought him to ground. Contact with the head, yes. Hard contact, in fact. But this was in every way a legitimate attempt at a tackle.
Damien Willemse’s was not. He was stood up by Gabriel Hamer-Webb who gave a textbook draw and pass. He then turned himself side on, shoulder facing the latter and braced forward for impact. You can probably allow for the fact he didn’t intend to hit the head, but either way, this was not a legitimate tackle attempt; it was not a rugby act of any kind.
It cannot continue to be that players are being expelled from games for accidents, getting the same punishments for rugby acts as those who commit foul play. The 20-minute red card mitigates things for the team, but for Southworth personally there is no mitigation.
Perhaps, if we are to be stringent, that aspect of what is a rugby action and what is simply foul play needs to be brought into the equation, with a 20-minute red card for the former and a permanent one for the latter. It would at least bring a proportionate admonishment. Punishing people for accidents needs to stop as soon as possible.
READ MORE: Frustrated fans are all saying the same thing after confirmation of dates for the 2026 Six Nations