Six Nations: Au contact

A behind-the-scenes documentary on the European Six Nations rugby championship. Each season showcases one season of the tournament, focusing on particular players in each team, showing the build-ups to certain games, what's at stake, highlights from the games themselves and the aftermath.

An interesting look into the world of international rugby, in particular Six Nations rugby. The behind-the-scenes footage and interviews are illuminating and helpful. Some great close-to-the-action shots from games too, footage you won't see in your average sports coverage.

However, it feels a bit superficial. There's a lot of team meetings and huddles but not much in the way of strategy and tactics. I found the player profiles dull - I really don't care about selected players' personal lives, I want to follow the rugby.

The experts who are wheeled in to provide some context and colour to proceedings are often just cheerleaders, telling us how great a player is with glib, trite comments.

The fact that each episode is devoted to a handful of players, generally one from each team with someone from the opposing team of that week also covered to balance things out, is also an issue. The experts and players often comment that rugby is the ultimate team sport - and it is - but yet the main focus of the series is individual players! Would much more have preferred a team-based view of proceedings.

Still, it's quite entertaining and, unless you already know the results of the games, quite tension-filled, something the producers manage quite well.

I'm from New Zealand. Generally this means we see all of these teams as our foes on the field and love to bag them during games. Kiwis find England especially irritating, France is often our bogey team in world cups, and now Ireland is the one to beat (used to be Aussie but they've been AWOL for some time now).

Putting all of that aside. I began watching this with a conformation bias, but actually was pleasantly surprised. Sure the actual rugby is nothing more than a highlights reel, but actually it was the backstories of the players that was engaging and somewhat heart warming. I found myself very much rooting for Scotland (my great grandparents would be delighted!), fascinated by the philosophical reflections of coach Galthié, chuckling at the banter in the England squad and sympathising with those senior players grappling with decisions to retire from the game they love.

It's a shame the focus was a bit more on just a couple of players and England's journey, rather than seeing the secret sauce behind Irelands success in recent years. But that said, it's great to see a positive spin on a great sport that hopefully is engaging a much wider audience as a result.

Looking forward to seeing how Gats rebuilding plan for Wales plays out in the new few seasons, and hopefully seeing a few of these lads on the field out here in NZ playing the ABs!

It was fairly good. Was expecting to be blown away by it but it fell a little short. Probably down to personal preference but they didn't seem to spend that long on the Irish players. It seemed like a highlights reel of the 2023 6 Nations.

Probably expected more action shots of rugby itself. Some of the interviews with various players were interesting, especially Negri, which gave a huge insight into the Zimbabwean born Italian.

However, other players who were briefly interviewed, seemed to have huge potential but the documentary barely scratched the surface with these, leaving way more questions than answers.

Probably worth a watch but could have been a lot better.

The series has got quite a harsh reception in the media but I enjoyed it a lot. I follow rugby so didn't need explainers on the rules of the game but I could see how some background and also the history of the Six Nations could have been beneficial.

The characters are compelling and the interviews with specific players going to their homes, hearing their partners worries and learning their family history was interesting and fresh.

Overall I think it's a strong series but it's not quite sure whether it should be 'Drive to Survive' following multiple characters or 'The Quarterback' which focuses on just three NFL players.

I expect season 2 to get better and commend this first effort!

Huge lover of the sport, and think season 2 improves widely upon season - but I can't help feeling as if some magic moments from the 2024 season were missed with such a heavy lens on England.

Of course I understand the natural need for a narrative in non-fiction, but it felt like every team last year had such interesting development that could've been followed much more - Italy's match with France would've been a fantastic episode in and of itself. I know many rugby unions were funny with allowing camera crews in (and have since become much worse), but the increase in the behind the scenes of each team was genuinely super enjoyable to watch and relaxed the pacing slightly.

Admittedly, I'm an Ireland fan so will always have some bias, but it was a shame to have such a brief focus on them so far into the series - especially with exclusive access to them during such a dynamic time for the team.

Nonetheless, still a great series at humanising these players beyond their careers and successes. Wouldn't necessarily recommend to someone who isn't a rugby fan, but thus seems the way with these Netflix sports docs. Still, such a shame that Netflix have negated to continue on with this series. Maybe another approach in a few years could be a bit more successful!