Wales want Friday night Six Nations games to be shared around when the television schedule is drawn up after next season.
Sam Warburton’s side host France on Friday with an 8.05pm kick-off and by next year Wales will have hosted six of the seven matches played on a Friday, with the other match taking place in Paris seven years ago. In contrast, the Sunday load is more equally shared and the only time all three matches in a round are played on a Saturday is at the end of the tournament.
“Everyone has to accept that the days of all matches being played on a Saturday afternoon are gone,” said Gareth Davies, the Welsh Rugby Union chairman. “The television deal means matches on Fridays and Sundays are here to stay because the ratings are high.
“We have twice canvassed the opinion of our member clubs and they prefer Friday night matches to Sunday afternoon. We have France next Friday and we play Ireland at that time next year. After that, the television schedule will be up for discussion and our view is that everyone has to bear the load. More hands need to go up.”
The Six Nations committee introduced Friday night rugby in 2009 to boost its appeal to broadcasters, suspending the initiative in 2012 and 2013 to gauge public opinion. England have not volunteered for the Friday night slot, citing commuter traffic problems around Twickenham, although they opened the World Cup against Fiji last year at that time. Ireland have similar reasons for not playing then, while Italy and Scotland fear attendances would drop.
“We appreciate that Friday is the busiest commuter day of the week and there have been public transport issues after matches in Cardiff,” said Davies. “We have worked hard with various authorities to resolve this and things went more smoothly during the World Cup when more trains were put on.
“The paying public is a priority for us and we put a huge amount of effort in to ensure people can get into and out of the city with a minimum of inconvenience.”
Friday night is popular with the Wales players. “It is what we are used to in the Pro 12,” said Warburton. “I like playing then because my body is used to it and it gives you the rare chance as a professional sportsman to have the weekend off.”
