We mustn’t waste this opportunity to entertain
DESPITE the challenging circumstances I’ve got a good feeling about this season’ s Six Nations which I expect to be as thrilling and exciting as the Autumn Nations Cup games were dreary and disappointing. I certainly hope so!
Of course it’s going to be very different with no crowds while the teams will be moving around in Covid bubbles but every nation — at different stages of development — has so much to play for and there’s an audience of millions on TV waiting to be entertained.
Our need for distraction is greater than ever and there will probably be more interest in 2021 than any other modern-day tournament, so let’s make it count.
This is a massive opportunity for rugby to strike back and all credit to the unions, the Six Nations organisation and players for making this happen. I suspect we don’t really appreciate the daily stresses and tensions they have been operating under during the last 10 months and we salute all of them.
We did, however, as a sport blow it back in the autumn by failing to provide a spectacle to match the Premier League football and Test cricket that have been royally entertaining us during lockdown.
The Autumn Nations Cup was instantly forgettable but happily within days of that ending the major clubs laid on a feast of exhilaratingly positive rugby in Europe and much of the Premiership action has been top notch.
SO who will win? It’s England for me but this is a tournament full of banana skins. England should emerge as champions but you wouldn’t put your mortgage on it. I suspect it’s still a year too soon for a fast-developing and exciting France team who face daunting away matches i n Dublin and Twickenham. That said, I wonder if this is the year, given the unique circumstances, to steal those invaluable away wins? Time will quickly tell. France aim to peak in 2023 and they are well on course but for the present they can still be a little vulnerable as they demonstrated at Murrayfield last season. Shaun Edwards will eventually eradicate such nonsense but it will take time.
England — even with injuries to Joe Launchbury, Mako Vunipola and Sam Underhill, and with Joe Marler dropping out for personal reasons — still have the firepower up front to take a firm grip of this tournament but they will need to get much more out of their backs.
We need to see Elliot Daly and Anthony Watson blazing away in attack, not just Jonny May, and the class and creativity of Henry Slade needs to be brought into play more fluently. Start maximising all that ability behind the scrum. These are England’s greatest weapons but their effectiveness depends on the speed of the ball.
Like all the teams, England need a fast start because Scotland are dangerous. Six Nations campaigns become very fraught if you lose your first game.
Finn Russell is back and the word is he is organising and communicating with his backs a lot more in training. Russell is the point of difference, he can take Scotland to another level and it is doubly exciting for their fans that soon, possibly even this Saturday, he will have young Cameron Redpath, another X-factor player, to work with in the midfield. Nonetheless I expect England to edge a cracker.
Wales against Ireland is another huge opener. It’s crunch time for Wayne Pivac as coach, the pressure is on, yet I feel he is on the verge of a breakthrough win. I look at their back-row resources for example — Justin Tipuric, Taulupe Faletau and Josh Navidi reunited after injuries — and there is none better in the world, and I watch half-backs like Dan Biggar and Gareth Davies and you know this team has so much more.
Ireland are in transition and Andy Farrell is handling it well, but this is a really awkward away fixture. Ireland will enjoy a strong tournament but I’m tipping Wales to nick this one.
In Rome, I can only see a France win although the Italians often ‘up’ their game against the French. France need to be ruthless as they then move on to Dublin. No dramas, hysterics and distractions.