If you live in the United States, it’s easier than ever to catch the action because BBC America is covering a match each week. Setanta Sports is also covering the competition in the US as the network enters its last month on the air in the United States, but BBC America is available to a lot more US households as it is not a paid subscription channel.

If you’d rather give yourself a bit more control over the tournament’s outcome, you can play it yourself with the BBC’s online Six Nations game. The game is a very simple one you can play with your Web browser, but it is surprisingly addictive. Beware–you may be surprised to find yourself spending hours enjoying the various “drills” and trying to top your score in the simulated matches.  Don’t say we didn’t warn you!

While you wait for the tournament to start tomorrow, here are some highlights from its last two incarnations:

2009:

2008:

So far, Ireland has won all four of their Six Nations matches so far and scored 46 more points than their opponents in those matches, while Wales has won three of the four matches and scored 21 more points than their opponents. If Ireland loses this weekend, the tournament is decided by total points difference throughout the tournament. For example, if Wales wins by 12 this weekend, both sides will have won four of five matches, and Ireland will have a points difference of 34 points, while Wales will have a points difference of 33 points. In that case, a beaten Ireland walks off the ground with the tournament trophy.

In Cardiff.

Awkward…

A similar situation happened last season, when Wales beat France on the last weekend of the Six Nations for an unbeaten “Grand Slam” tournament victory, but Wales had only needed to lose by less than 20 points to win the tournament.

Of course, one could argue that this setup is fine, as Wales can still control their fate by putting a 13-point (or more) beating on Ireland (just as Ireland can render the issue moot by beating Wales), but it’s a little bit strange to walk out on the ground with the scoreboard effectively reading “Ireland 13, Wales 0″ as far the Six Nations tournament stakes are concerned. Also, the general practice of points differential as a tie-breaker might encourage teams to pour on the points against weaker opponents when a match have already been decided. That seems to be against the spirit of the sport.

Why not make head-to-head matches the first tiebreaker instead? In other words, if two teams each win four of the five matches (or some similar, but less likely combination of equal win-loss records at the top of the table), the first tiebreaker could be head-to-head results–namely which team won when they played one another. Points differential could be the next tiebreaker, such as if three teams all went 4-1 in the tournament and each had beaten only one of the other two teams (for example, if France beat Ireland, Ireland beat Wales, and Wales beat France, but all three sides had won their other matches). Making head-to-head results the primary tiebreaker wouldn’t make score differential unimportant, but it would make it a lot harder to lose a match to a team, then walk off with the tournament trophy while your victorious opponent claims the runners-up crown.

Of course, Armchair Playmaker won’t advocate tipping the scales against Ireland on a day when even the fountains at the U.S. White House are dyed green, but head-to-head might be the way to go as a general practice.

That said, we have a sneaking suspicion that the Six Nations organizers are looking to Armchair Playmaker for insight on how to run their operation. So let’s look at some Irish rugby highlights from recents years to commemorate their likely Six Nations win:

Watch more NETLOG videos on AOL Video

The Republic of Ireland became independent from the United Kingdom in 1922 following a war for independence that was precipitated by a 1916 uprising. The day after Ireland received autonomy, Northern Ireland opted to withdraw from the new nation and remain part of the United Kingdom. The island remains politically divided today. The circumstances and conflict surrounding this schism are too complex to explore in detail here, but the strife between those favoring the split and those seeking to unify Ireland under one government has been an acrimonious one that has cost thousands of lives over the years.

Despite the political division, though, the Ireland rugby union side represents the entire island. Therefore, Ireland has been faced with a unique political challenge in how to represent its supporters. A flag representing the four provinces of Ireland is flown instead of the flags of Ireland or Northern Ireland. Until 1995, the Irish national anthem (Amhrán na bhFiann, or “The Soldier’s Song”) was played at home fixtures in the Republic of Ireland, while the British national anthem (”God Save the Queen“) was played at home fixtures in Northern Ireland. For away fixtures, the issue was resolved awkwardly by playing no anthem at all for the Irish side.

In 1995, a new anthem, “Ireland’s Call,” was created specifically for use by the Ireland rugby union side. (For matches in the Irish capital of Dublin, however, the Irish anthem is also played and the Irish flag is also flown.) Although the anthem has since also been adopted by Ireland’s rugby league, cricket, and field hockey sides, it remains somewhat controversial. “Ireland’s Call” has been alternately described as “a laughable dirge” and an anthem “belted out with such hair-raising intensity that men and women were crying as they sang.”

So is “Ireland’s Call” a failed attempt to patch over Ireland’s political friction or a symbol of unity for Ireland’s athletes and supporters? You can be the judge after viewing this clip of players signing along to the anthem before a 2007 Six Nations match against England (which was also significant in that it was the first appearance of an English sporting side at Dublin’s Croke Park since the 1920 “Bloody Sunday” incident, when British soldiers fired into a crowd of Gaelic football supporters and killed 14 of them):