It’s been eleven months now since the schedule for the 2024 Tournament was revealed and we know that France-Ireland on Friday evening will be the opening match. At the time, the Club’s fifteen was number 1 in the world rankings and the Blues just behind: it was already the promise of a shock. Almost a year later, the two teams, eliminated in the quarter-finals of the World Cup, have fallen back a little in the hierarchy (2nd and 4th) but are still favorites for the final victory. Why do they meet so soon?
Already because, in a necessarily repetitive calendar, it is necessary to at least rotate the posters, and France-Ireland served as the closing of the Tournament in 2020. We also point out, from the organization’s side, that the World Cup, not so long ago, had done everything to start with a France – New Zealand, and a shock of this kind has everything to launch the competition.
The result of negotiations between the Tournament, the Federations and the TV broadcasters, the calendar must therefore take into account the wishes of each of its stakeholders. In France, we enjoy matches on Fridays, and also at night, a double delicacy that only the Welsh share, when the English, Irish, Scottish and Italians have only accepted a deviation from the tradition “a match of the Tournament, it ‘is Saturday afternoon’, sacrificing their Sunday.
Towards a final France-England final?
After a France-England, at the end of the 2004 Tournament, as the first match at 9 p.m., it is only since a France-Wales in 2009 that the Six Nations has scheduled matches on Friday, because it is a day and an hour where TV audiences are strong in these latitudes.
And among these decision-makers, no one wants to believe that the fate of the Tournament will be sealed at the end of the evening. Starting there also allows the competition to end with France-England (Saturday March 16, at 9 p.m.). Which could just as easily be a final, between the pleasant surprise of the World Cup (semi-finalist) and the vengeful Blues.
