Brendan Gallagher column: It’s time for Six Nations to produce real quality

It’s normally right now – the second and third week of January – that I fall back in love with the Six Nations. Hope springs eternal even if we have fallen out and aren’t talking again by the end of March.
The ritual announcements of the squads, the unveiling of a new captain or two, the over-the-top TV trailers with Eddie Butler doing his moody voice overs, the gathering of the great and good at the Hurlingham Club for a mass media session. New coaches fresh faced and hopeful, the old lags circumspect and expert in eloquently saying absolutely nothing and promising even less.
The increasingly anxious scanning of the post for delayed match tickets, the double and treble checking of hotel and plane reservations for the away trips. Banter from colleagues and friends, arrangements to meet up for beers and newly-discovered restaurants that serve great grub and don’t get mobbed. We’ve all been there before. It’s great.
But what about the bloody rugby?  As a fan there is a reassuring same old, same old feel to the Six Nations but that’s the problem. As lovers we have lost all objectivity but the truth is that the tournament has become a bit smug and self-congratulatory. And the rugby is often pretty poor.
The Six Nations commands endless hours of live prime-time terrestrial TV and acres of media print that the action rarely warrants.   And because of the media interest, the sponsors keep coming and the money keeps rolling in. Financially it’s a huge success but as a rugby tournament it’s been stuttering for a fair while.
The spectacle is everything and, yes, it does totally outshine the Southern Hemisphere in that respect with its world class stadia, huge bands of travelling fans and lost weekends of institutionalised roistering.
But that spectacle has papered over the cracks. Down south, with few if any travelling fans, less of a circus and rubbish singing, bar the Pumas fans, the emphasis is still on the rugby. And the rugby in their showpiece tournament is much better than ours.
The Six Nations is not bringing out the best in European rugby and it’s time for a shake-up and new energy. Any institution that has been around for well over 100 years – the Championship in one format or other had been going since 1883 – needs to reinvent itself occasionally.
Some of the pitches have been utterly lamentable, not to say dangerous, and the TV-led treatment of fans expected to build their weekends around Friday night and Sunday afternoon kick-offs has been unthinking at best, arrogant at worst.
The Six Nations committee, Canute like, refuses to bring in the tried and tested bonus point system which is the bedrock of every other tournament – international or domestic – in the world. There is a very slim line between being ‘different’ and just plain perverse.
The Six Nations declines to disturb its self-appointed cosy club or derail the gravy train by countenancing relegation and the emergence of another hungry nation such as Georgia or Romania who, remarkably, are beginning to regenerate again.
It shouldn’t even be their call really. If you asked Deloittes in to do an audit they would surely conclude that, historically, the Six Nations has hijacked European international rugby and illegally excluded the rest of the continent.
Everybody has to fall in line behind the Six Nations, a private commercial entity and sacred cash cow to the lucky six nations who have formed the cartel. The governing body, World Rugby, seemingly have no say in how international rugby in Europe is structured top to bottom.  It’s franchise rugby at its worst.
A huge amount of recent Six Nations rugby has been plain poor, often a step down from the top European Cup games and nowhere near much of the rugby I recall from even the Nineties and early Noughties, let alone the glory days of the Seventies. If you think I’m over egging the pudding check out the footage on Youtube some rainy Sunday afternoon.
Ah, but wasn’t the last weekend of the 2015 tournament wonderful I hear some of you protest. Well, yes and no as far as I’m concerned.
There were some good skills belatedly on offer and that was reassuring and the ever-changing maths of the day made for a flurry of excited confusion, but for me there was also something unsatisfying and unconvincing about the whole try fest.
Italy‘s game against Wales was nigh on unwatchable so utterly abject were Italy in the second half and, for all its
avalanche of points, England‘s encounter with France had the unreal exhibition feel of a friendly for much of the 80 minutes.
It reminded me of an end-of-season England-Barbarians encounter. Lots of action for the highlights reel but tackling was often an afterthought and rugby common sense in short supply. Ireland‘s big win in Scotland had an authentic enough feel with some snarl and bite as well as good rugby and ultimately that is why Ireland were deserving champions.
Of course none of those concerned flourished at the World Cup a few months later when confronted with the beasts from the Rugby Championship. Southern Hemisphere rugby has moved on massively from our misconceptions. For every dazzling run and out-the-back-of-the-hand trickery you have hard-as-nails forwards like Brodie Retallick and Scott Fardy.
They tackle better than us, they defend in numbers better than us – witness 13-man Australia holding out Wales – their top goalkickers like Nicolas Sanchez are the now the world leaders and they scrummage much better than us. And they are still fitter, visibly so.
The European fitness gurus will howl in protest – but screech on gentlemen. You can crunch your numbers all you like but the rest of us will use the evidence of our own eyes.
The gauntlet has been well and truly thrown down. The rugby on offer during the Southern Hemisphere-dominated World Cup, not to mention the abbreviated Rugby Championship, was just so much better and more compelling than the usual Six Nations fare.
The Six Nations must respond.  This is a watershed moment. The widening gap needs to be closed now before it becomes unbridgeable.
The 2016 Nations tournament badly needs to be remembered for the quality of its rugby and nothing else.