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Six Nations to kick-off as scheduled, but women's and U20s tournaments shelved until later in 2021

(Photo by Chris Ricco/The RFU Collection via Getty Images)

Six Nations officials have confirmed the 2021 men’s Six Nations tournament – with England as defending champions – will go ahead as planned next month but its competitions for women and under-20s have been shelved until later in the year. There has been speculation that the men’s tournament could be moved to a later date in the hope that fans could potentially be allowed into stadiums if pandemic current restrictions are eased.

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However, authorities have decided to press ahead with the staging of Six Nations matches behind closed doors, starting as planned with the February 6 games featuring Italy vs France and a Kyle Sinckler-less England vs Scotland followed a day later by Wales vs Ireland. Sinckler was banned on Wednesday following his F-bomb to the referee in last Saturday’s Bristol vs Exeter Premiership match.

No mention was made in the Six Nations statement about concerns at government level in France about its team’s trips to Dublin and London later in the competition. It follows concerns that earlier this week led to the suspension of the Heineken Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup. 

Video Spacer

JP Doyle on last week’s bizarre red card in France for a player lifting a referee

Video Spacer

JP Doyle on last week’s bizarre red card in France for a player lifting a referee

“Six Nations Rugby confirms plans to stage the men’s Guinness Six Nations championship remain as scheduled. Following the successful completion of the 2020 Guinness Six Nations and Autumn Nations Cup, Six Nations Rugby is in constant dialogue with each of its governmental authorities and is further reinforcing its Covid-19 protocols,” read a statement that went on to explain the reasoning behind the delayed women’s and U20s events. 

“The dynamic nature of the external environment and the ongoing challenges it presents, particularly for sports and teams of amateur status, meant a collective agreement to push both championships to new later windows was prudent to ensure, where possible, that both competitions can be played safely and without interruption in 2021.

“The Women’s Six Nations is more challenging to deliver safely and successfully given the need for many players to return to their jobs, some of which are key and frontline workers. While the external environment is certainly challenging, we have wanted to take a fresh look at the window and format for the women’s championship – this presents us an opportunity to do just that.

“A working group has been formed made up of all unions and SNRL (Six Nations Rugby Ltd) to review and assess dates and formats of both competitions. We are prepared to be agile and flexible on the formats of both championships in order to find the appropriate slots in the respective calendars and deliver an exciting proposition for players and fans.

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“We will be factoring World Cup qualifiers as part of the mix and the need for properly aligned preparations for unions that have already qualified.”

Six Nations CEO Ben Morel added: “We are fiercely committed to the promotion and development of rugby at all levels, particularly the women’s game where we see such an exciting opportunity for growth. This is not a decision that we rushed into and we are confident that in looking at a new later window, we will be in a far stronger position to deliver two fantastic tournaments, delivering exciting rugby for fans, and ensuring the safest possible environment in which to stage them for our players.”

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Flankly 2 minutes ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 11 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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Nickers 40 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
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