Even with Ireland once again top, a middle England, and Italy and Wales battling at the bottom, the tournament still thrills
At first glance not an awful lot changed during the men’s Six Nations championship this year. Ireland and France occupied the table’s top two positions, as they did in 2023, with Wales and Italy in the bottom two and England and Scotland once again the meat in the club sandwich. Ireland, for the third year in a row, had the meanest defence and only the winless Welsh, strangely, managed to score more tries than last year.
Yet if this was not a vintage Six Nations in absolutely all respects, the old tournament is enjoying a refreshing renaissance. The competition is now so tight that 10 of the 15 matches were decided by four points or fewer, including all three of the final-round games. If Netflix cannot stitch together an award winning series from the stunning “Super Saturday” footage alone it should abandon its fly‑on‑the‑wall cameras and walk away.
