Former All Black captain Zinzan Brooke has called for a Six Nations seeding system that would ensure the competition was decided on the final weekend.
Brooke's proposed seeding system would see last year's winners, France, taking on the bottom-placed side in 2002, Italy, in the opening fixture. England, as second seeds, would take on fifth-seeded Wales on the same weekend.
England, the current number one ranked team in the world, and defending champions France would meet on the fifth and final weekend of competition.
"People talk about Ireland being a team to challenge, but England and France will once again be the ones setting the standard," Brooke told the BBC.
"The problem is that this year they play at Twickenham on the opening weekend of the tournament and most people think that, whoever wins, has wrapped up the championship".
"We need excitement from start to finish not getting the tournament's best contest out of the way on the first weekend," he said.
French coach Bernard Laporte agreed the February 15th Twickenham clash could undermine the rest of the tournament.
"To tell the truth, we plan to use two teams in this year's championship. The best team will play England and Scotland, but after that we will be wanting to try out fringe players in view of the World Cup," he said.
Six Nations fixtures
Saturday, February 15th
England v France
Italy v Wales
Sunday, February 16th
Scotland v Ireland
Saturday, February 22nd
Wales v England
Italy v Ireland
Sunday, February 23rd
France v Scotland
Saturday, March 8th
Ireland v France
Scotland v Wales
Sunday, March 9th
England v Italy
Saturday, March 22nd
Wales v Ireland
England v Scotland
Sunday, March 23rd
Italy v France
Saturday, March 29th
France v Wales
Scotland v Italy
Sunday, March 30th
Ireland v England