Six Nations: Could this be the best ever?

At its best, and in a good year, the Six Nations tournament serves the great cause of cheering us all up, and the one starting this weekend promises to be one of the best. 

There are five good teams, which is at least one more than is usual and my hope, even trust, is that the rugby will be so compelling that nobody feels inclined to speak of the tournament as preparation for next year’s World Cup.

Last year’s Six Nations was pretty good despite the absence of crowds. That absence served to make a point: of the matches not involving Italy, five were won by the away team. 

That suggests there is something in the common belief that a boisterous home crowd does make a difference. 

Scotland remarkably won at Twickenham and in the Stade de France but lost, somewhat less remarkably to Wales and Ireland at Murrayfield, though the margins of defeat were narrow, 1 point and 3 points.

Still, away wins are more common than in the old amateur days — there have been eleven Grand Slams this century. One reason is that amateur players rarely played outside their home country except in internationals. 

Today’s players all have cross-Border experience in European Cups, while of course Irish, Scottish and Welsh ones all play in the same club league.

If a Grand Slam seems unlikely, it is because the five countries (that is, excluding Italy, of whom more later) seem unusually evenly matched, and all won autumn internationals against southern hemisphere teams.

If I say Ireland seem the hardest team to beat, this doesn’t mean that I think they will win all their matches — for one thing, they have to go to London and Paris — but they have now won their last eight matches, including a defeat of the All Blacks. 

Their team has a nice blend of experience and youthful zest. They are as familiar with each other as a club team is. Indeed they are almost a club team, eleven of the starting XV against Wales today coming from Leinster. Leinster’s ability, year after year, to unearth new talent has me muttering like Macbeth watching the procession of Banquo’s heirs: “What? Will the line stretch on to the crack of doom”. Seems like it does.

They start against Wales in Dublin and do so as favourites, even though Wales are the reigning champions, not without a fair bit of luck last season.

France managed to lose to both England and Scotland last year, despite being the better side for most of both matches. 

No team has its gaze more firmly fixed on the World Cup (apologies for the mention), principally of course because they will be the host nation. 

Almost everyone loves this young French team because it seems to have recaptured the famous and too long absent “French flair”. This was never more apparent than in their win against New Zealand in November. 

Well ahead at half-time they were knocked back by a characteristic New Zealand rally, and the match was in danger of slipping away from them until the young fly-half Romain Ntamack fielded a kick behind the French try-line and set off on an audacious and dazzling run. For a moment, it looked as if there was to be another famous French “try from the end of the world”. 

In fact, Frace got only a penalty when an All Black flanker was guilty of killing the ball and received a yellow card. The penalty was kicked, and from that moment France resumed control.

Usually at this stage, one finds oneself asking, “can anybody beat England?” — to which the answer is all too often “only England”. Now, despite a fine win over South Africa in November, they are in some confusion, ravaged by injuries with half-a-dozen regular starters missing.

Given the wealth and depth of talent in the English game, they won’t get much sympathy. But, having finished only fifth last season, Eddie Jones, who has talked more about next year’s World Cup than any other coach, has torn up his old plans, discarding old favourites, notably the Vunipola brothers, and turned mostly to youth. 

The youth, with England’s daring new darling Marcus Smith at flyhalf, will, one assumes, play more daringly too. Perhaps the routine question about France should now be put about England: depends, doesn’t it, on which England turns up.

Well, they start at Murrayfield against a Scotland team that, unlike the England one, looks settled. Over the last four tournaments Gregor Townsend’s Scotland has a better record against the Auld Enemy than at any time since the early 1970s: played 4, won 2, drawn 1, lost 1. 

The defeat was a narrow one at Murrayfield two years ago on a vile February night, not fit, as W C Fields would have put it, for man or dog. 

Sadly, since both Jones and Townsend have selected teams capable of playing entrancing rugby, the forecast for 4.45 today, is pretty vile again, if not quite as bad as two years ago, a gusty wind due to drop just before kick-off but heavy rain to fall throughout the match. 

Let us hope the forecasters have got it wrong, for on a dry afternoon and early evening this might be an entertaining game. Whatever, it’s one that could go either way.

Finally, what of Italy? They have some fine players, and their young team is improving fast. Unfortunately, everyone else is improving too and improving faster. 

So they may yet again fail to win a match, though at moments they will play entertainingly, and there will be talk of dropping them from the tournament.

Nevertheless, one might dwell on the word “entertaining”. The Six Nations is of course about rugby first and foremost, but it is not only about rugby — it is about socialising too. It’s a sport in which there is no need to segregate visiting fans. It’s about friendships, old and new, and a holiday weekend. 

There is no more popular destination for supporters than Rome. Italy will come good. France had played more than thirty years in the Five Nations before they won the tournament. 

The Six Nations is splendid as it is. There’s no need to change, and many of us would say there’s an imperative need not to change.