Michael Bromfield @mikebromf - Twitter Profile

Dear 6 Nations fans, I want to give you an insight into the mindset of Southern Hemisphere (albeit New Zealand) rugby fans. For years, there’s been this sentiment down under that 6 Nations rugby is rubbish compared to the Rugby Championship. Admittedly, it turns out this rivalry is pretty one-sided. Apparently, you guys don’t really care much about the North vs South thing, while down here, we care deeply. Like a little brother making up a competition just so he can beat his older brother. But I want to give you some insight into where this perception has come from and why we think this way. 6 Nations fans love their rugby because it produces some of the most exceptional rivalries, and high pressure moments in the international rugby. Highly pressurised, back and forth, leave-nothing-on-the-field, pressure cauldrons. Each team duking it out with each other, landing blows, trading penalties, until one team finally wrestles momentum to score the match-winning penalty with seconds left on the clock. BUT... they were trading penalties. Every moment one team gave an inch, the other team would capitalise in the form of a penalty. To us New Zealanders, we’d wake up on a Sunday morning, pop on the highlights, and watch a 3-minute penalty compilation. "Boring!" we’d shout, and go back to drinking our milo and eating our marmite toast. What we missed were the stories. The moments, the pressure, the devastation of loss and heartbreak at a mere penalty changing the balance of an 80-minute encounter. "But we want tries," we’d say. Most Northern Hemisphere fans would think we meant try-fests, or defenceless muckabouts where it’s basically like watching 7s. No time building pressure, no moments of teams beating each other to try to force an inch of difference. But that was far from what we meant. It’s not just more tries because of poor defence. It’s tries because teams and players are so exceptional in their skillset that they are able to exploit the smallest error for a try, rather than focusing on the big giveaways that result in penalties. And that final game between England and France perfectly encapsulates what we’ve been saying all this time. Rather than a tit-for-tat of penalties building to massive moments, it’s a tit-for-tat of incredible tries. It was the same beautiful, powerful, pressured rivalry. The same storied history. The same never-say-die attitude, the same moments of pressure, the same giving everything on the field, but now the moments, the inches given, are capitalised on not by penalties, but by tries. Two powerhouse teams giving their all, exchanging blows and capitalising on each other's mistakes with TRIES. Beautiful, glorious, spectacular tries! Just look at this shift: France (2022): 17 tries and 12 penalty goals. France (2026): 30 tries and 3 penalty goals. England (2022): 8 tries and 17 penalty goals. England (2026): 21 tries and 6 penalty goals. This latest game is the exact opposite of what we’ve critiqued about 6 Nations rugby in years gone by. It's exactly what we've been talking about! It's the kind of rugby that keeps us awake at 3:00am. And if this is the new 6 Nations, then the old 'North vs South' grudge is officially moot. That was world-class rugby, and we can't get enough of it.

66

961

55

102

300K