Former All Black Zinzan Brooke has called for an overhaul of the Six Nations Championship in a bid for the competition to be decided on the final weekend.

England and France dominated the event last season and are expected to do the same in 2003 after sizeable wins against the leading southern hemisphere sides in November.

And Brooke believes a seeding system is the best way to ensure a climactic end to the tournament.

He told BBC Sport Online: "People talk about Ireland being a team to challenge, but England and France will once again be the ones setting the standard.

"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."

Potential fixture list (seedings in brackets)

Week 1: Fra (1) v Ita (6); Eng (2) v Wal (5); Ire (3) v Sco (4) Week 2: Eng v Ita; Fra v Sco; Ire v Wal Week 3: Fra v Wal; Eng v Ire; Sco v Ita Week 4: Fra v Ire; Eng v Sco; Wal v Ita Week 5: Fra v Eng; Ita v Ire; Sco v Wal

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.

And, through his plan, the English, the current number one ranked team in the world, and defending champions France would meet on the fifth and final weekend of competition.

He said: "We need excitement from start to finish not getting the tournament's best contest out of the way on the first weekend.

"I'm not calling for a massive overhaul of the competition - no one would be happy with that. But the tournament does have to move with the times and seeding seems to be the obvious answer.

"It wouldn't belittle the tournament, with the last game, in theory, deciding the championship.

"It doesn't halt the prospect of an upset and, if people do have a problem with such a dramatic change, the system could just be used for the first weekend of games."