Ever since the early decades of its growth the Six Nations has been partial to a bit of monkey business according to Peter Jackson in the Daily Mail.
"Where it had taken France 16 years to renew membership of the old gentlemen's club, England were back within 16 days after their second expulsion for daring to break from the collective television bargaining to do their own £87.5m satellite deal.
"It was all too absurd for words until Bill Beaumont jumped in his car to settle what he called 'a dispute as stupid as it was damaging'. The RFU despatched their old Grand Slam captain to Glasgow for summit talks with Six Nations chairman Allan Hosie and Beaumont duly emerged from the Drum and Monkey pub to declare peace in our time.
"Those were the days when there were some people in influential positions at Twickenham misguided enough to think England would be better off forging alliances with the Southern Hemisphere and slipping England Reserves into the Six Nations on the arrogant assumption that the tournament had been reduced to an Anglo-French monopoly."
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