Cracking the Code

77 minutes on the clock, Sam Warburton rips the ball in contact before putting a perfectly weighted nudge down into the French 22. France scuttle back and leather the ball into touch. Wales win the ensuing line out, retain the possession, Barnsey says time's up, ball goes off the park. Wales are victorious in Paris. Back to sleep. From a Welsh perspective, the above would have been a pleasantly mundane end to an average test match. Average at best. Instead Warburton's punt kept rollin, rollin, rollin (Durst 2000), off the green and into the drink - scrum to France back in Welsh territory. One last opportunity for Le Bleu - albeit the wrong shade of Blue, bring back Bleu de France. Stash is important. Rant required. Few phases later, France are camped meters from the Welsh line, the clock turns red and we enter the fifth quarter. The goings on of the nek twenty minutes, yes there was another twenty minutes, would be so farcical that they make the concept of five quarters s...

Whilst millions at home were enjoying watching Six Nations super Saturday unfold, I was forced to scurry around the Internet looking for alternative outlets for following events. The letters VPN became my nemesis. A combination of Radio Wales, Radio Ulster, BBC sport app and Twitter just about managed to keep me in check. Although the masses lauded this the best day's rugby in history, questions quickly started to emerge around the structure of the competition and why fans hadn't been treated to such free flowing games on previous weekends.  It is difficult to reject the notion that synchronised kick off times on the final weekend would assist in creating a level playing field as teams fight it out to determine their final standing. The concept is deployed in major football competitions for that very reason. It was undoubtedly to England's advantage that they had a total to chase, as opposed to Wales and Ireland who knew they just had to post their best and hope. Conver...