For years the debate has raged over the merits of the Magners League and the Guinness Premiership, but now there is genuine fact to support those who see the Celtic competition as superior to the English top flight.

Take this season as far back as the November internationals. The only side to register a win in the entire programme for the northern hemisphere sides was Wales.

The side who came closest to making it two wins for the north was Munster’s second string - populated rather heavily with New Zealanders though it was - against the All Blacks’ midweek men.

Fast forward to the Six Nations. England were awful in places, better than awful in a few other areas, and excellent for one half out of ten.

The silverware was fought over by Wales and Ireland, almost all of whose players play in the much maligned Magners competition.

The Heineken Cup adds another supporting strut to the argument.

In the quarter finals, Leinster beat Harlequins, Munster and the Ospreys contested another of the ties, while Cardiff beat three-time champions Toulouse. Leicester, playing against English opposition, snuck through to drive the only English stake into semi-final territory.

Then came the Lions selection.

Twenty-seven of the thirty-seven names on Ian McGeechan’s list play their rugby in the Magners League.

I watch more Guinness Premiership rugby than I do Magners League. I have always scoffed at phone calls from colleagues in Wales or Ireland who suggest theirs is the better quality rugby, and I laughed earlier this year when Chris Paterson, the Scottish fullback who tried and failed to establish himself in the Premiership with Gloucester, went public with claims that the Magners League offered the better spectacle.

But can Premiership apologists continue to shrug these claims off any longer? Do the facts not speak for themselves this season? And if I actually watched more Magners League rugby, would I be so sure that I was right?

The Premiership has been busy these last few years packing stadiums and producing a brand of rugby that has gone through the roof in terms of entertainment compared to what used to be served up, and I would rank the atmosphere at last season’s Grand Final better than anything I experienced on the last Lions Tour and any home international seen since then.

As a polished product, it could be rightly pleased with itself that the previously  -supposedly - superior Super 14 was firmly in its sights. But while we all sat back and admired it, did we realise that the improvement was largely as a result of a considerable number of high class overseas imports?

As a result, the Magners League has tiptoed up on the rails and, as the makeup of the Lions squad shows, now produces the best of British and Irish talent.

There have been numerous decisions in the last 14 years that have come close to wrecking rugby’s progress from amateur pastime to billion-dollar business, but never has the transfer of a player from one club to another managed to achieve it.

The wailing and gnashing of teeth over the departure of Wasps trio James Haskell, Tom palmer and Riki Flutey to French clubs suggests that English rugby is in danger of being plunged into the depths of despair, about to be pillaged of its internationals from the club scene as they follow the reddies on offer across La Manche.

Rubbish.

They are three players, they are doing what countless others have done before them and when their contracts are up in just two years’ time, at least one of them will likely find his way back to the Guinness Premiership, a wiser, better player for the experience no doubt.

It won’t ruin English rugby, it won’t hamper the international side and it won’t spark a dash for the ferry by all and sundry desperate to get their share of the uncapped spending power enjoyed by a handful of well-to-do French sides.

Market forces being what they are, player movement is a fact of professional sport, and when – because this will happen – the Euro begins to look less attractive once again, France will no longer be painted as the land of milk and honey.

A decision far more likely to damage the game will be the one that means many of those of a Welsh persuasion who look forward to their biannual jaunt to Paris will have to make do with a tin of lager and their remote control on Friday night instead.

A Six Nations weekend should be exactly that, not a dash to an evening kick-off from the office. How many supporters in the current climate feel able to squeeze an extra day off work to travel without jeopardising their job?

The sad truth is that the clout of the TV networks has robbed genuine supporters of one of the highlights of their rugby calendar.

As blights on the game go, that is much bigger than any player transfer.

A text from a friend midway through the first half at Twickenham on Saturday could, you felt, succinctly sum up the feeling of the entire crowd at England HQ.

“I’m speechless,” he began, before going on with such ferocity that suggested he was anything but. “This is the most unsatisfying game I’ve ever watched because the game is being determined by one man. How can you rate England on this? Mallett wants shooting for picking Bergamasco at No.9.”

This much was hard to argue with come the half-time whistle. Bergamasco had a hand – or not, in all three of England’s first half scores either by his wayward passing or simple lack of scrum-half nous.

With the Stade Francais man mercifully removed at half-time, we could at least expect a second half whereby England could be assessed on their own merits.

And that is the problem. When they were asked to create their own fortune, rather than profit from the errors of their opponents, England were awful.
 

Not exactly much very bold about Martin Johnson’s changes to his 32-man Elite Player squad but nice to see Ben Foden included.

Other than that Johnson has principally used his five allotted changes to make permanent fixtures those who were called up due to injury in the autumn.

There seems little value in having retained Tom Rees when it is widely held that he will not recover from his lates knee injury until the very end of the RBS Six Nations.

It would have made more sense to bring the in-form Steffon Armitage in right away, but such are the befuddling rules that govern the number of changes Johnson is allowed to make the London Irish man is left in the Saxons with the crumb of comfort that if he stays fit over the next two weeks of European Cup rugby he will probably get the nod.

The root cause of England’s problems in the autumn was that any attacking ball they had was reduced to being used at a snail’s pace because of powderpuff rucking and forwards taking the ball from a standing start.

Armitage has shown in recent weeks that he detonates rucks like a bouncing bomb and comes on to the ball like a runaway train. He must be given his chance.

Elsewhere in the pack there have been no personnel changes that would genuinely shake things up but if Matt Stevens and Andrew Sheridan are called into Johnson's office and are seen hours later, scurrying from his door with reddened faces, then the message will have been sent that it's time their considerable reputations were matched by some far more considerable deeds.

It's also time to take the shackles off Dylan Hartley. He has a bigger presence than Lee Mears in scrum and loose and questions over his temperament will never really be answered until he is subjected to 80 minutes of rough stuff in arenas like Croke Park and the Millennium Stadium.

In the backs it is doubtful Foden will start given the outstanding form shown by Delon Armitage in the autumn but there is a strong case for Mike Tindall to come back into the side.

Jamie Noon offered little at outside centre in November and is playing in a Newcastle side woefully short of confidence and even shorter on quality.

Tindall is playing his best rugby since joining Gloucester and, as long as someone gives him a lift to Pennyhill Park, he should be harnessed with Riki Flutey in training to allow the pair to gel.

On the wings, Paul Sackey, purveyor of high-performance cars, is in danger of being overtaken by Mark Cueto, who ditched his own flash motor some while back to try and cure his back troubles.

It worked, and Cueto is red hot once again. On the other flank, no reason to drop Ugo Monye who now replaces the luckless James Simpson-Daniel who has once again fallen from view due to injury.


My starting side would go something like this:

Delon Armitage; Ugo Monye; Mark Cueto; Mike Tindall; Riki Flutey; Danny Cipriani; Danny Care; Nick Easter; Tom Croft; Steffon Armitage; Nick Kennedy; Steve Borthwick; Matt Stevens; Dylan Hartley; Andrew Sheridan