Watching old Six Nations footage is like looking at a different sport at times. The modern game, with its more athletic player profiles and meticulously regulated chaos, bears little resemblance to the mayhem of rugby in the 1980s. Gone are the mud-soaked cotton jerseys that gained five pounds during the rainy winter months. The no-lift lineouts of utter chaos where tall men reigned supreme. The rucks? Lawless battlegrounds where “shoeing” (delicately rearranging an opponent’s ribcage with your studs) was considered a legitimate clearing-out technique rather than assault. The intricate back-row moves off scrums or the inaccurate seven-man backline plays that crabbed across the pitch have…

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