Saint-Andre's France in contention for Six Nations glory

There has been four different winners in the last 4 years, harldly default winners wouldn't you say. Hard to pick a winner this year, a Grand Slam for anyone looks out of the question, the last weekend is going to be amazing though, France's trip to Cardiff, and Irelands to Twickenham, Get Excited!

Fascinating read- Thanks for that, good to get a non-australian perspective on the Union V League issue.

Can't recall the last time I saw a side coached by Saint-Andre play anything other than forward-orientated dross.

Much bigger field KOG than rugby, or soccer KOG it is rectangular but wider field.

Interesting insight into Rugby League by two South African Springboks who played the game in thr 80s............ http://www.rugby365.com/opinion/phase2/2838224.htm

isnt Hurling and GAA football rectangluar?

I think you'll find we aren't because the GAA were taking such a massive percentage of the money being made. Also, while we aren't getting 70-80,000 to Six Nations games, have you ever thought that might be made up in other places, like Leinster now being able to play select games in Landsdowne where they are getting between 40-50,000 attendances, 30K more than they would have got and while Leinster get some of that, the IRFU gets a nice cut of that as well.

Aviva is mich closer to the action than croke park. Croke park is like at homebush way too far form the action. Bad to watch rectangular sports.

If you have been to Landsdowne Rd you will understand why they put it there.

kovana they were filling 80,000 Croke Park throughout the Six Nations before the new Landsdowne road was finished, so it should be 80,000. They must also be losing a lot of revenue.

KOG, Treviso while is not that large itself, it is in the centre of the huge Veneto area, with a population around 5 million and significantly the rugby heartland of the whole country. Given indeed the competitiveness of Treviso, they should therefore really be doing better in terms of crowds. 5K in Europe is very small considering there are only two teams, and there are many teams in Europe that get far more. Much of the reason Treviso is more competitive is that they have broken the limits on foreign playing numbers set down for them by the Italian rugby federation. Ideally the FIR would buy back some of the elite players currently playing of French and English clubs such as Parisse and Castrogiovanni. However they are so expensive that this is not possible, and so Aironi, who are not importing the same number of foreign players as Treviso, are doing badly. Two elite teams is a quick fix solution as it cannot possibly cover such a large country. Expect to see more soon, despite the weakness of Aironi (they wanted 4 or 5 in different regions but the celtic nations said no). Maybe these teams will have many new teams will have many foreign players to begin with, in order to be competitive. Crucially, I think the increased profile of the game if the team do well, especially with the move to the Stadio Olimpico (with the extra revenue that will bring), combined with increased government funding with rugby becoming Olympic sport (though who knows where they will find any money now), could lead to good developments very soon.

Agreed KPM. Ireland should have at least a 60K stadium.

Leinster also use Landsdowne Road (Aviva Stadium) for their big games and got 46,000 for their H Cup match a few weeks ago so it's a perfect size for both Ireland and Leinster. I stayed in a hotel opposite the ground two years ago and it's in a fantastic location serviced by a train station outside its front entrance and in the area known as D4 full of rugby pubs and bars - fantastic for the 'craic' before and after big games.

your a bit harsh there KPM. I think you should re-phrase that to Aironi is a joke. Treviso are far from a joke. they are sitting in 8th in the Celtic league, they have won and draw a game in this years H cup. they are certainlnig on the improve. as the for the crowds, i have no major issue with them. remember they are palying in small towns, plus they are no smaller then the crowds the scottish, welsh or even some english teams get. 5K in europe isnt so unusual. it is no surprise that Treviso has doen better as it was an established club. Aironi was not. hence it is taking longer for the Airioni club to perform, on and off the pitch. that is hardly a surprise. i expect 2012-2013 to be a watershed year for Italian rugby.

KOG the problem is the domestic game is a joke, with crowds for the two franchises under 5000 often. One of them, Aironi, lost 82-0 in the Heineken Cup last weekend. However, the move to have only two teams in the celtic league instead of their local compeition led to an immediate increase in performance in the last Six Nations, as playing at a higher obviously got much more out of the players. For the game to take hold of the country the national team need to be more than whipping boys, and they are on the verge of that. In fact in addition to beating France they nearly won two of their other matches last year. I think if they can start to be a real force in the Six Nations then the game will take wing, and the domestic level with it. Remember, the population and potential market is 12 times Scotland or Ireland, so gains in exposure and interest are spread over a much wider area.

KOG in fact crowds lowered when they moved from Landsdowne road, apparently because of the loss of atmosphere of an 80,000 stadium when full. The Six nations was basically sold out at Croke Park. They should have built an 80,000 stadium somewhere different from Landsdowne road.

the GAA would have been taking a fair cut of the takings at Croke Park. I wonder if the IRFU are better off financially at Lansdowne road, even though its a smaller capacity? also, as the autumn internationals showed, not ever international match in Ireland gets sold out. they are only guaranteed to sell out the 6 nations games, which is 2 or 3 matches a year. ideally that would have been a 60K stadium, but 52K is still alright. thats the size of suncorp.

i didnt realise they were taking there games to a bigger stadium. positive move. itlaian rugby really seems to be growing.

kiwidave the ridiculous decision was to build a 50,000 stadium simply because permission wasn't allowed for anything bigger at Landsdowne road. They should have moved to a site where they could build an 80,000 stadium. Every international they are losing 30,000 fans.

gusbrisbane they have got past 50,000 sales with a month to go and the capacity is 82,000, so it's unlikely not to be a success. Apparently only 6,500 were away tickets too. It's quite likely they could have had this success some years ago too, but better late than never. It certainly adds some scale to the occasion and if it hadn't been for the Ireland downgrade all six countries would now be playing in 70,000 plus stadiums for the Six Nations. Now the two teams play in the Rado Prodirect 12 they should be more competitive too.