6 Nations: Fight for Positions

The Six Nations is always important, but in a World Cup year it takes on a new level of significance. The head coaches have to weigh up the desire to win games and gain momentum for Japan, as well as fine-tuning any elements that require it and giving form players opportunity to stake a claim for September. By now most national teams should know their first choice team and simply be tweaking the game plan a little. However that is never the case, and below I discuss the primary position each Six Nations team needs to sort out before the end of March.

There's a lot riding on this tournament for the head coaches, the will to win, but also to prepare for the World Cup.

Quick Tap: 2019 6 Nations Fantasy League

February is almost here, and we all know what that means. Yep, it's time for the annual TacklePad 6 Nations Fantasy League on ESPN! Enter using the code below:

1300446-118723

One of these men will lift the trophy at the end of March, but who will come out on top of the TacklePad League?

Restructuring Europe

It's a near constant discussion in the newspapers, on the TV, and down the pub. Does the European system really work? Just recently we've had a few big names from the English Premiership saying that the current system is unfairly skewed to the Irish sides when it comes to winning Europe. In addition, the endless debate about player welfare brings the number of games players play into scrutiny.

With all that in mind, I'm putting forth my proposal for a brand new European system, read on below.

The Champions Cup still draws criticism for how unfair it is to certain nations. Maybe we should just get rid of it.

Scrums Scrums Scrums

Last week I mentioned how people shouldn't be "trying to fix the game". So this week I'm going to be a hypocrite and talk about how I would fix the game. Although crucially I'm going to do so by not fundamentally throwing the sport itself under the bus, instead I'm going to discuss how I think the decade long problem with scrums can be sorted out, by not changing any laws at all.

Everyone loves a good scrum right? Totally not boring spectacles that 90% of the time end in a penalty.

Stop trying to "fix the game"!

It seems not a week goes by that some rugby newspaper writer pens a column or article about how to "fix" rugby, and to get rid of some modern blight on the game. Recently the big issue has been head injuries and concussion. A valid problem with the game - all contact sports really - that needs to be dealt with in the proper way. However, some of the ideas being generated are just utterly unfathomable, fixing made up issues, instead of the fundamental issues.

Concussions and head injuries do remain a significant threat to players, despite World Rugby's efforts.