When And In What Way Will The Six Nations Change?

AND FORWARD, THO' AH CANNA SEE – AH GUESS AND FEAR. Thus wrote The Bard, all those years ago, and his imperfect forward vision certainly strikes a chord with those of us looking at the future of International Rugby.

The South Africans are, increasingly, aligning with the northern hemisphere – the inconveniences of travel and playing some games at the height of their summer being offset against the convenience of time zones and the greater financial pull of the northern hemisphere. They have agreed to remain within the SANZAAR sphere of influence until 2025, but, what happens after that is anyone's guess.

By then, the four South African sides will be able to compete in the Heineken and European Challenge Cups, further strengthening their ties with Europe. In that case, getting The Springboks into the Guinness Six Nations is a no-brainer.

 The several million dollar question, however, is:

• Will it be a Six Nations? With South Africa replacing Italy?

• Will it become a Seven Nations, by simply adding them?

• Or Might it become an Eight Nations, with Georgia also being added?

I honestly don't see Georgia being done any favours by the current six nations, however, were Russia to get their act together and become the dominant Tier Two team in Europe, then, concerns over institutionalised state doping not withstanding, it would be difficult to keep them out.

Any thoughts of South Africa replacing the sixth team in the existing competition should be concentrating minds inside Murrayfield. Should the Italian Under-20 squads continue to improve as they have been and still are doing, and should our own Under-20 programme continue to under-perform, well, Scotland could well be ranked sixth and reliant on the Old Pals Act to keep them relevant. (I should add, the same concerns could be voiced in Wales.)

My own view, taking how FIFA and UEFA operate in their form of football, is that in time, we could well see the Six Nations expanded into something like football's European Nations League, with promotion and relegation between the various groups. Such a competition might well be a decade away, but, I can see it happening – unless the Old Boys Club members decide to look after their own interests and put them ahead of letting the game grow.

South Africa looking more towards Europe might also help reignite one of the game's truly great rivalries. At the moment, the All Blacks v Springboks is an annual event, Suppose, with South Africa playing more in Europe, it reverted to being an occasional series – I reckon that would make more money for the respective Unions. In any sport, you have to see the top talents facing each other, but, such meetings have to be kept rare and special. That's when the game can really sell itself.

However, if South Africa in Europe might help sell series against the All Blacks, it might be the death knell for Lions Tours to South Africa – unless, as I feel needs to happen, we can find a way to re-package the Lions' concept.

Of course, all this is pure speculation. World Rugby has its view of how to grow the game and its future, we will have to wait and see what the great brains in Dublin are thinking, before we know what the international game will look like, going forward.

WELL, WE KEN NOO: The FOSROC Super6 will return in April for “A Sprint Series” each team will play the other once, before a top-half against bottom-half series to determine finishing positions one to six. This will be followed by an East v West challenge. Heriot's, Southern Knights and Watsonians will supply players to the East team, with Ayrshire Bulls, Boroughmuir Bears and Stirling County providing the West squad – I dare say this will be played at Dam Health Stadium, if only to maximise SRU income.

The full FOSROC Super6 Championship will then kick-off on 5 August, same as last season, home and home games leading to a Grand Final at the end of October.

The new set-up is a compromise, since, once again, there will be no cross-border games, with the Home Unions concentrating on recovering from the effects of Covid. The clubs are now, however, guaranteed between 17 and 20 matches in a calendar year.

The six clubs are already recruiting, since quite a few of last season's players have moved on. A couple of the clubs have posted advertisements on the Oval 15 rugby recruitment website. Significantly, they are primarily seeking “Scotland-Qualified” players, following criticism of some of last season's recruitment moves.

Once again, each franchise will be allocated five Stage III Scottish Rugby Academy players, while their funding has been increased, to enable each team to recruit a full-time General Manager, whose responsibilities will be to develop and improve all off-field activities, prioritising commercial expansion and overseeing the marketing and communications strategy for each team.

This cash has come from the existing high-performance budget at Murrayfield.

The announcement came with usual amount of waffle from Jim Mallinder, but, the sad truth is, Super6 will only begin to show its true colours and a positive effect on Scottish Rugby when the cross-border element gets up and running. Either the projected games with the Welsh Premiership sides, or, better still, a re-vamped British & Irish Cup, that will allow S6 to flourish. Until that happens, we are marking time.