Irish voices raise 6 Nations concerns

Doyle, who led Ireland to a Grand Slam title just weeks ago, was responding in an Irishnewspaperto questions around the reported debate ongoing about proposals to change the structure of the tournament asreported first by Scrumqueens.com.

The proposal is to split the tournament in two, with the top three containing Ireland, France and England playing each other home and away while Italy, Wales and Scotland would play once but the tournament would still be run under the 6 Nations umbrella. It is understood that Wales and Scotland favour the changes on both performance and cost grounds.

“It would not be ideal,” said Doyle. “For the good of the fifteens game I don’t think the Six Nations should be broken up into two sections. It’s not my decision and I will go along with whatever change, if any, is implemented.”

A competition review is ongoing, as confirmed by the IRFU this week.

In a statement, the union said: "The IRFU, the current Six Nations champions, are engaged in on-going discussions with the other Six Nations Unions in relation to the structure of the Women’s Six Nations and we look forward to announcing the outcome to these discussions in due course."

The decision will ultimately be made by the Six Nations board, on a recomendation from the women's committee, potentially at their next meeting on April 10th.

Former Irish player Rosie Foley alsovoicedher concerns this week.  "I’d be sad to see it ending, I love it the way it is at the minute. It has been so good for Irish rugby; there has been a huge improvement. My own opinion is that it’s fine now, you have to play against better opponents. Italy are where we were five years ago and they need good opponents, they’re improving."