Monday Round-Up
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Monday Round-Up
Parisse rubbishes idea of playoff
Italy captain Sergio Parisse has rubbished the idea of a relegation playoff to be brought in for 6 Nations.
Italy have come under scrutiny in this years championship with 5 defeats and heavy loses to England, Ireland and Wales.
"When you lose matches, it's normal that everyone talks about relegation, I understand that," said Parisse.
"But I think there's no way to have relegation in this tournament because can you imagine next year if someone like Ireland or Scotland are last and got relegated? Do you think the [national] federations are going to accept that?"
However, with second-tier European nations Georgia and Romania impressing at last year's World Cup, pressure is growing on officials to at least consider a play-off match.
"I really respect all the other nations - Georgia and Romania have really progressed a lot - but we have been involved in this tournament because we are doing great results," said Parisse.
"We have beaten great teams, we beat Ireland, Wales, we beat France a few times, and Scotland and we win the respect from everyone to be involved in this tournament," added the Italy skipper, whose country have yet to beat England, this season's Six Nations champions.
"Obviously, it's a difficult campaign but I think at the same time the other nations [Romania and Georgia] must have historic results as we did in the past and maybe one day be involved in this tournament but there's no way to do relegation.
"In the last 10-15 years we have had historic results and tell me another nation that deserves more than us to be involved? They didn't have the same results.
"I think it's ridiculous. If one day, anyone decides we must be involved in a relegation match we are going to accept that and play 100 percent."
'Hartley can get better as captain' - Jones
Eddie Jones has praised his England captain Dylan Hartley and has said he will improve as a captain.
Hartley captained England to Grandslam glory but had his doubters along the way
"I'll sit down with Dylan over the next two to three weeks and plan out the Australian tour," said Jones.
"The great thing about Dylan is that he's a bit of a rogue, a likeable rogue. He's got good people skills, he's not afraid to tell people what they should be doing when they are not doing it and he's not afraid to give someone a pat on the pack.
"He's done an outstanding job as captain. He can still get better as captain -- and he will -- but he has done a really good job. At this stage there's no reason why Dylan won't be captain as long as he keeps improving as a player. If he keeps improving as a player, he'll remain as captain for the tour."
