For a long time the Southern Hemisphere has dominated rugby union. In recent times, however, the Northern Hemisphere has come to the party. Wales thoroughly dominated the Six Nations competition and would now consider themselves a threat to this balance. France’s performance was nothing to be sneezed at, either, but do the Southern Hemisphere sides have anything to worry about?

It’s clear that outside of Wales and France, they have little to concern them. Not even Australia, who have been hopeless lately, would be worried about the other sides in the Six Nations. But do Wales and France have a chance of beating the Southern Hemisphere teams? It’s clear that these two sides can play the kicking game well, but what is really amazing is the sheer amount of tries that the Welsh scored – with this sort of form the Welsh could do well against the likes of New Zealand, South Africa and Australia..

The French, on the other hand, did rely on kicking when there was trouble – not as much as England, but they still scored a notable amount of points with the boot. It is very difficult to play the Southern Hemisphere teams and win by playing the kicking game. They can play a good line-out and manage to put on seven points while you only put on three. As such, South Africa and New Zealand should be able to deal with these two sides.

‘It's clear that outside of Wales and France, Southern Hemisphere nations have little to concern them. Not even Australia, who have been hopeless lately, would be worried about the other sides in the Six Nations’

What could be the biggest undoing for the Northern Hemisphere sides is the experimental law variations (ELVs) that the Southern Hemisphere’s main rugby body (SANZAR) are attempting to push through the International Rugby Board (IRB).

These laws turn a lot of the offences that are penalties into free-kicks – meaning the team cannot elect a shot at goal as an option. That encourages running rugby and try-scoring, as demonstrated in the Super 14 competition this season. Conversely, it discourages kicking rugby. These laws would make it very difficult for the Northern Hemisphere teams to beat their rivals from south of the Equator. Wales would actually do rather well under these laws and really push the Southern Hemisphere teams all the way.

Wales are, realistically, the only nation that could worry the Southern Hemisphere teams. They are a try-scoring force, but if the new laws are adopted here then the rest of our teams will definitely struggle to compete with the All Blacks, Springboks and Wallabies.