'I don't know how that would work' - Andy Farrell cold on Springboks suggestion for Six Nations

Adding Springbok beef to the Six Nations mix might not be a recipe for success, according to Andy Farrell.

Question marks once again surround the place of Italy, Ireland's next opponents who are on a run of 34 straight defeats in the championship.

Yesterday, competition organisers poured cold water on the idea that World Cup winners South Africa would take the place of the perennial wooden spoonists.

The Six Nations said it was "not entertaining any discussion nor developing any plans to add or replace any participating Union."

The South Africa Rugby Union confirmed during the week that they had signed up to the southern hemisphere's Rugby Championship until 2025.

Asked for his take on a possible expansion, Farrell said: "I don’t know how that would work.

"Eight weeks in a competition is pretty long enough and the reason it’s eight weeks with the fallow weeks is because of the intensity of those games.

"If you bring in somebody like South Africa, I don’t really see the intensity changing, do you?

"So I don’t know about that but anyway we’ll leave that to the powers that be to iron all that out."

The Azzurri, now under head coach Kieran Crowley, have lost their opening two games, two France and England, by a combined score of 70-10.

Their last win in the competition came against Scotland in 2015. Last weekend their Under-20s beat England, 6-0, for the first time at that age-grade.

"Well, I mean if you look at the other countries in the Six Nations and their history, they’ve been at it a long time and they’ve built up their standards over the years, haven’t they?" said Farrell on the subject.

"If you, for example, have a look at the French Under-20s who have been doing really well for the last few years and the benefit they’ve had