CHRIS HEWETT
THINKING ALLOWED

Much of the “tactical” kicking across the opening rounds of the Six Nations would have left Fred Flintstone wondering what happened to the idea of progress, while some of the off-field decision-making – in selection meetings, disciplinary tribunals and, especially, in the Television Match Official command and control centres – made the town of Bedrock look like Harvard.
So far, so glum. Yet there is more than a hint of a Golden Age emerging from the dust and detritus of rugby’s descent into the Lower Paleolithic. Who might be responsible? Step forward the en...