Six nations and bonus points
Mar. 2nd, 2006 10:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chickenfeetIt's now Thursday and despite frantic efforts I can't get any of the bit torrents of last weekend's 6N games to work worth a damn. You are therefore spared my prognostications!
Instead I shall discuss bonus points. The 6N still uses the good old two points for a win, one for a draw with assorted arcane rituals for deciding placing in the fairly frequent event of two teams tying on points at the end of the competition. The 3N and S12/14, in contrast, award four points for a win, two for a draw with a bonus point being available for either scoring four tries and/or losing by less than seven points. So, a losing team could, theoretically, win two points though that would be a very rare occurrence.
I think the bonus point system is an excellent one. We've used it in league play in Ontario for several years and it definitely ups the interest in otherwise dull games. As things stand in the 6N, when one gets a game like last week's Ireland-Wales game, pretty much all the interest has gone with half an hour still to play. At least if Ireland had been chasing for a fourth try bonus point there would have been something to watch for. It also helps in the situations where, realistically, one of two teams is almost sure to win the league. Instead of the head to head between the leaders being the only game that matters there is every incentive to go for the bonus against the weaker sides. This is exactly what happened last year in the ORU Keenan division where the Nomads won the division by virtue of more bonus points from the York Yeomen who had an identical won/lost record, the head to head matches having both been won by the home side. It made a lot of otherwise rather pointless fixtures very interesting indeed.
So, time for the blazers to get a bit creative and liven up the 6N with bonus points!
Instead I shall discuss bonus points. The 6N still uses the good old two points for a win, one for a draw with assorted arcane rituals for deciding placing in the fairly frequent event of two teams tying on points at the end of the competition. The 3N and S12/14, in contrast, award four points for a win, two for a draw with a bonus point being available for either scoring four tries and/or losing by less than seven points. So, a losing team could, theoretically, win two points though that would be a very rare occurrence.
I think the bonus point system is an excellent one. We've used it in league play in Ontario for several years and it definitely ups the interest in otherwise dull games. As things stand in the 6N, when one gets a game like last week's Ireland-Wales game, pretty much all the interest has gone with half an hour still to play. At least if Ireland had been chasing for a fourth try bonus point there would have been something to watch for. It also helps in the situations where, realistically, one of two teams is almost sure to win the league. Instead of the head to head between the leaders being the only game that matters there is every incentive to go for the bonus against the weaker sides. This is exactly what happened last year in the ORU Keenan division where the Nomads won the division by virtue of more bonus points from the York Yeomen who had an identical won/lost record, the head to head matches having both been won by the home side. It made a lot of otherwise rather pointless fixtures very interesting indeed.
So, time for the blazers to get a bit creative and liven up the 6N with bonus points!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-03-02 10:47 pm (UTC)