Six Nations must move match to US for sake of international game
The months of February and March really are rugby’s golden period; when the world stops to watch the Six Nations.
England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France and Italy all going at it over five rounds really shows off the best of the sport.
It makes money, it is attractive to private equity and fans adore the ability to travel home and away against other top rugby nations.
But is it time to take a Six Nations game to the United States?
I think it is time to give it a whirl, even though I am not sure the American audience gives enough of a shit about the Six Nations to deserve a long-term commitment to the best annual competition in world rugby.
But the reality of the situation is that World Rugby has chosen to take men’s and women’s World Cups to the United States in 2031 and 2033, probably a decade too early.
To mitigate this they’re looking to move matches to the United States – and encouraged the Springboks and All Blacks to play a Test in Baltimore this year – while ramping up the marketing ahead of the tournaments.
It is probably fair to say that Baltimore, having been chosen to host a Test in 2026, will get a World Cup match but can the States sustain tens of matches across a month? I am not sure.
Six Nations saviours?
And it is for this reason that the game probably needs to send more meaningful matches to the United States, to save an embarrassment of empty seats in 2031.
It would probably need to be Ireland and England going over there, and with the Aviva Stadium a much smaller arena – combined with the Irish diaspora Stateside – it should be an Irish Six Nations home game, too.
It would be deeply unpopular, and I would probably be against it, but it is the kind of thing that needs to happen to protect the future of the game.
Ireland versus England would sell out, no doubt about it, and could show what meaningful, competitive rugby could look like in North America – the South Africa game versus New Zealand should do the same thing.
The Six Nations is the crown jewel of the annual rugby calendar; not because the rugby is necessarily better than the southern hemisphere Rugby Championship, but because you can touch down in any one of the competing nations within three hours of take off.
That unique selling point would be lost taking a game to the United States, and it certainly should not be a long-term solution to rugby’s failure to grow on the international stage.
But in the short-term it may be a growing pain European rugby – and by proxy the Rugby Championship nations – will need to endure to ensure the survival of the game for the next century.
Former England Sevens captain Ollie Phillips is the founder of Optimist Performance and recently finished rowing the Atlantic to raise money for MND charities. Donate at World’s Toughest Row