Luke Fitzgerald Sees One Problem With The New Six Nations Bonus-Point System
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The Six Nations today announced that they will finally be introducing a bonus-point system.
This system will be implemented on a trial basis in all three Championships in 2017 and will be reviewed post Championships. As part of their review of the Championships, the Council took the decision to implement a bonus point system to encourage and reward try scoring and attacking play.
Competition points will be awarded in all matches on the following basis:
- The Union that wins the Match shall be awarded four Match Points or (if it scores four tries or more in the process) five Match Points.
- The Union that loses the Match shall be awarded no Match Points or (if it scores four tries or more in the process or loses by a margin of seven points or fewer) one Match Point or (if it scores four tries or more in the process and loses by a margin of seven points or fewer) two Match Points.
- Unions that draw a Match shall each be awarded two Match Points and any of them that scores four tries or more in the process shall be awarded a further one Match Point.
- A Union that wins all five of its Matches (a “Grand Slam”) shall be awarded a further three Match Points.
Former Ireland international Luke Fitzgerald however thinks one of the new rules are a bit contradictory and he may have a point. The rule in question is in relation to a team completing a Grand Slam. In order to safeguard the sanctity of the Grand Slam, any team who completes a clean sweep will be awarded an extra three points.
“I think that was a bit of a weird one for me,” Fitzgerald said
“I think it should always be done by points, the team with the most points should win. I think it’s a bit contradictory. They’re trying to say, I want you to play more expansive rugby and we are going to encourage scoring tries by giving you more points for tries. Then you say, actually if you go and win every game, you can actually play pretty crap rugby and still win every game and still win the tournament. I think it is a bit contradictory in that sense.”
What do you think? Does Fitzgerald have a point?
