Why is the Six Nations starting on a Thursday?

The Six Nations gets underway this week with another sizeable clash between title hopefuls France and Ireland in the first-ever Thursday night fixture in tournament history.

The defending champions welcome Andy Farrell’s side to the Stade de France in Paris to get the championship underway.

Generally, Six Nations weekends are split with two games on a Saturday and one on a Sunday, although Friday night games have become relatively common.

Ireland will host Wales on Friday 6 March at the Aviva Stadium later in the tournament, and the last two editions have begun under the Friday night lights in Marseille and Paris respectively.

While the Saturday afternoon and evening slots are considered valuable by British broadcasters, their French counterparts tend to prefer a later kick-off time, with the Top 14’s marquee fixture each weekend traditionally scheduled for Sunday night.

A Friday night start would have been likely, then, if not for a clash with the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.

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France Televisions, the primary Six Nations broadcaster in the country, also has the rights to the Olympics, and will hope to draw two strong audiences on back-to-back nights in early February.

The finale of last year's tournament, when France beat Scotland to secure the title, returned record Six Nations audiences in France with 9.5m viewers (a 46 per cent share) watching live on France2.

Viewers in the United Kingdom will be able to watch the opening match on ITV, with the BBC and Premier Sports also showing five games during the Six Nations campaign.