World Cup-winning coach Clive Woodward has called on northern hemisphere administrators to look at using a bonus-point system in the Six Nations after the most thrilling final round ever seen in the competition's 121-year history.
Woodward believes the extraordinary final day of this year's campaign, in which 27 tries and 221 points were scored across three games as Ireland were crowned the eventual champions, shows what is possible when the historically more conservative rugby nations of England, Ireland and Wales have an incentive to score tries.
He said competition architects should look at extending the use of attacking and defending bonus points to encourage expansive play.
"It's the only time we've seen it, certainly the only time I can remember watching a Six Nations where I thought 'well if the Australians and the All Blacks are watching this they'll be quite impressed' because we can play the game like this," Woodward said.
"Rugby's a great game when it's played properly but when you're not going out there to score tries and you're going out there to defend and play field position, sometimes rugby isn't a great spectacle for general sports fans. In the Six Nations, I think it would be a really good, interesting thing to look closely at, in terms of how the scoring does work. The use of bonus points for a certain number of tries, or for keeping the margin to a certain number.
"I have to say the World Cup's been working like that, we've always had pretty good World Cups so far. But it was an interesting day for the Six Nations because it was without doubt the best Six Nations day in the history of the competition."
England, Ireland and Wales went into the final round of the competition on six points a piece after three wins each, while England sat in front on points difference. In the first game, Wales monstered Italy 61-20, leaving Ireland to beat Scotland away by more than 21 points. Joe Schmidt's team managed to make it a 30-point thumping, which then set England a target margin of 27 points against France in the third and final game. In a thrilling end-to-end clash, they won the match but fell short of the required margin by a converted try. Ireland, watching the match in the bowels of Murrayfield in Edinburgh, were crowned champions for a second year running.
Woodward, who was part of the BBC commentary team that called the Twickenham Test, urged administrators to take note.
"All three teams were having to chase the points, it shows you what can happen if a team goes out there with a winning margin they have to deal with. It wasn't a zero-zero game, they had to go out there with a mindset of having to score big differences and the games were brilliant.
"On the Monday [after] I was flying to Switzerland and in the airport I have never ever had so many people stop me to say what a fantastic day it was. Everyone watched it and thought it was amazing. These are just fans of sport, they weren't 'rugby people', so I think the sport has to take that on board."
Attacking and defending bonus points are used in the southern hemisphere equivalent of the Six Nations, the Rugby Championship, which is contested by Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. They are also used in the 15-team Super Rugby competition and go a long way to determining who advances into the finals series of the southern hemisphere provincial competition.
They are also used in the World Cup to help determine which two teams from each pool progress to the knockout stages, with any relevant head-to-head result and then points differential factored in if necessary.
Despite the final-round fireworks, Woodward said he expected the fourth-yearly coming of the World Cup would once again draw down the shutters on expansive play. But he also predicted that in Pool C – where Australia, England and Wales will vie for just two qualifying spots – each nation's games against Fiji and Uruguay could make the decisive call.
"There is a chance that [Australia, Wales and England] could all beat each other, or all lose one," he said. "It means the Fiji and Uruguay games will be important because of the points difference. The run-chase in the Six Nations was really quite significant and it might not be isolated, and I think that's what teams should be planning for.
"When England play Fiji in the opening game, yes we've got to win it, but we really have to rack up the points just in case we were to lose one of the other big games."
Clive Woodward spoke to Fairfax Media as a Land Rover ambassador at the launch of Land Rover's 2015 Rugby World Cup campaign: 'We Deal in Real.'
