Ireland fly-half Johnny Sexton has insisted the Six Nations would be "compromised" if it were reduced from its current seven-week format, as proposed by England's Rugby football Union (RFU).
Clubs from the Aviva Premiership and the RFU's chief executive Ian Ritchie had confirmed they intended on pushing through a proposal for a shorter tournament.
Ritchie commented in March: "We believe it is perfectly right to have a six-week competition as opposed to a seven-week one."
Welsh Rugby Union chairman Gareth Davies confirmed last week that they would reject any such application, stating: "We will not be supporting the reduction to the Six Nations weeks. We have consulted with players - they are key in all this with player welfare meant to be a key priority - and the general feeling is that this will place greater pressure on them."
England international pair George Ford and Joe Marler have also rejected the idea, with the latter calling it "ridiculous" and Sexton has now echoed those sentiments.
"From a player's point of view, the way it is now is very good," Sexton said at the rebrand launch of IRUPA to Rugby Players Ireland. "Taking one week out is probably a compromise.
"They are talking about playing it over five or six weeks, which would be tough going. Now, World Cup is the same but during the group stage of a World Cup you might have one or two games depending on the group where you can rotate one or two guys.
"In the last World Cup, we changed up the team totally for Romania so that was essentially a week off, although you could argue that there are no weeks off at a World Cup. It is different at a Six Nations, isn't it? Every game is full on, pretty intense, so think the way it is now is pretty ideal.
"Trying to cram it down would compromise. You would see a lot more players missing out on games, basically, because a lot of those weeks are about getting ready for the next game. You want to see the best players play in those games and I think that would be reduced."
The physicality of international rugby places extra emphasis on player safety, something this proposal would seem to jeopardise and which Sexton claims would actually be an advantage to England.
"You might have players missing a few games with a small niggle whereas you might not miss any with the way it is now," Sexton added. "The other argument would be that the best squad would win.
"That probably suits England. They seem to have three or four or five players of the same standard through different positions but it would test our depth as well and we have maybe a little more depth than we would be given credit for, maybe."
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