£1m bonus spur for Wales and England

Wales and England will be playing for a £1m Grand Slam bonus when the Six Nations kicks off in Cardiff on Friday night.
A tournament which keeps soaring in commercial value will this year offer prize money totalling almost £13m.
For the first time, a team winning all five matches will scoop more than a third of the jackpot at around £4.6m.
The scale of payments as agreed by the six competing Unions effectively guarantees that even the wooden spoon comes with the gold lining of a seven-figure pay out. Just as one per cent of the pot goes to the bottom, so an extra one per cent is available for a Slam.
The feat has been achieved eight times during the 15 seasons since Italy‘s admission turned the Five into Six in 2000 – Wales (2012, 2008, 2005), France (2010, 2004, 2002), Ireland (2009) and England (2003).
The difference between unbeaten champions and runners-up this year could be as wide as £1.8m with second place paying out less in the event of a Slam. This week’s loser, or both in the event of a draw, could still win the title but without the extra £1m for a clean sweep.
England are in the throes of their longest run between Grand Slams since the late Sixties. More recently, they have lost deciding matches against Wales at Wembley (1999), Scotland at Murrayfield (2000), Ireland at Lansdowne Road (2001) and Wales again during Cardiff’s first Friday night opener two years ago.
The Six Nations will continue to be the one major annual rugby competition not to use bonus points. The organisers have re-examined the subject and decided to leave their two-points for a win, one for a draw alone.
“Bonus points have worked for competitions where there is an equal number of home and away matches,” Six Nations chief executive John Feehan said. “If you apply that to the Six Nations, you are giving an inherent advantage to the countries with three home matches.
“We’ve had nail-biting finishes without needing to change the points system. Had we used bonus points it could have happened that you had a team winning the Championship but losing the title.”
That could have been the case in the last two Championships with England edging Wales in 2013 despite their 30-3 drubbing in Cardiff while last year under the Southern Hemisphere’s Rugby Championship rules England would have pipped Ireland because they won the match between the two countries 13-10.
This Six Nations is on course to break all attendance records by raising the cumulative total for the 15 matches to more than 1,050,000, an average of 70,000. Last season’s figure of 1,027,472 is likely to be eclipsed as our panel, left, reveals.
Feehan said: “This is unquestionably rugby’s greatest annual championship, and it has ever been as competitive as it is now.”
TV viewing figures are also impressive. France v England last year across all relevant domestic broadcasters was watched by 13.6m.
It also gave the BBC their biggest audience of 6.6m.
PETER JACKSON