In search of the feel-good factor
It's back, the oldest annual international tournament in the game and not a moment too soon. The all-too-recent, drawn out, seven-week marathon that was the World Cup has not exactly left the European game pining for more international rugby.
Nevertheless, the Six Nations' rich history and enduring sense of occasion will ensure over a million spectators attend the 15 matches over the next seven weeks and, as ever, it will be interesting.
It's all a far cry from four years ago when, of course, for the first time, the reigning World champions were to be in our midst. Recall what a boost that gave the European game and the Championship - indeed how much it inspired Ireland the ensuing March at Twickenham when inflicting on England only their second defeat in 20 Test matches. Happy days. Back then five of the six head coaches were continuing on from World Cups that were successful to varying degrees. Only Matt Williams was new on the block, so to speak.
In the run-up to last autumn's World Cup we had expected it to deliver a bit more of a feel-good factor. After all France, the dominant force in the intervening four years with three titles and a runners-up finish, were hosts, albeit with a little unwanted help from the Welsh and the Scots.
The other European superpower, England, were the holders in name anyway, and Ireland, after three Triple Crowns and three runners-up finishes in the intervening four-year cycle, had its most talented, settled, experienced and best prepared team/squad ever.
Italy had just come off their best Six Nations and were eyeing up a first-ever quarter-final, albeit at the expense of a Scottish side which had been revived under Frank Hadden. Yet the World Cup did not exactly portray European rugby in a particularly good light, though Georgia and Portugal might disagree.
Even England's remarkable story in reaching the final with a ragbag collection of unlikely heroes defied the most mismanaged four-year cycle of any country in the world. Within a week, the head coach had been undermined by two old warhorses heading into the sunset and a drawn-out review left Brian Ashton with a roll-over, one-year contract and the distinct impression that the coaching ticket are not exactly singing from the same hymn sheet.
In France, the pain is most acute after a rollercoaster ride which ultimately saw the chance of a lifetime slip by amid resentment that the Les Bleus had sold the country's rugby soul. Wales, never ones to do things by half, provided some of the best thrills of the tournament, going out in the pool stages to Fiji and sacking their coach before the squad had even finished packing for the airport - literally.
Scotland's Hadden admits "the frustration we felt at not fulfilling our potential" following their quarter-final exit to Argentina, while Italy's campaign ended in a river of tears after fluffing their best chance of reaching the last eight. And Ireland? Well, let's not go there.
The net result is that half the six nations come into this weekend with new coaches and perhaps that is why they look the most enthusiastic about proceedings. The daringly appointed Marc Lièvremont has been given licence to thrill and to experiment, immediately stamping his mark by retaining only a skeletal 11 of Bernard Laporte's World Cup squad in his first selection against Scotland.
France then, are really champions in name only and will once again be cursed by club demands. While not wishing to criticise his predecessor, scarcely even referring to Bernard Laporte by name, Lièvremont does promise that "in terms of the game, we have a mission to be more positive in comparison to what happened in the World Cup. Of course it is a wish of a lot of the coaches here, and I am not a dreamer. I know there are a lot of difficulties but we are trying to be very ambitious in our game and to build on that ambition."
Wales have been buoyed by two of their regions qualifying for the knockout stages of the Heineken European Cup for the first time, while the newly-installed coach, Warren Gatland, has generated a whirlwind of goodwill and optimism. Nick Mallett isn't promising miracles just yet, but as one of the brightest jewels in the coaching game, he looks one hell of a good catch and also speaks of broadening the Azzurri's game.
Wales are almost at their most dangerous when buoyant - to themselves as well as opponents. Ever the extremists, that stunning Grand Slam success in 2005 remains their only top-half finish in the eight years of the 'Six' Nations - there have three fourths, three fifths and a wooden spoon. Incredible.
Their opener against England, where they haven't won in 20 years, holds the key to their campaign. Thereafter three home matches are interrupted by their intriguing trip to Croke Park, before they host France in the late kick-off on March 15th. As Ireland also know all too well, potentially that could be a massive advantage to either Wales or France.
Hadden, looking for "continuity and change", has been encouraged by the relatively improved performances of Glasgow and Edinburgh and welcomes the flipside of a summer exodus abroad. "In terms of competition for places it's about as good as it gets for us." With France and England due in Murrayfield, where the Scots scalped both heavyweights in his first campaign two seasons ago, Hadden says: "Our target is to go into the last game against Italy with something to play for. I think it will be a tight championship and I think there will be a lot of teams in the last game with something to play for."
With less pressure on teams, Gatland foresees "a really exciting" championship to the backdrop of the experimental law changes in the Super 14. "I have my own views on that; that there's only one area of the game that needs to be fixed and that's the breakdown. And if referees get a little bit stronger at the breakdown, get the tackler away and start giving out a few yellow cards, I think that will sort that area out rather than the IRB coming out with kneejerk formulas about five yards apart."
Ashton agrees that it has the potential to be one of the most open championships in some time, and sincerely hopes that the Six Nations provides a more lasting spectacle, with a more ambitious England central to that. Admittedly, Ashton's initial selection does look, as Gatland has suggested, compromised by the RFU's qualified endorsement of him. But there were signs of a relative revival last season when England won their three home matches, although the flipside of that coin is that they must travel to Paris in round three this year.
At face value, with so many variables, this doesn't look like a Grand Slam year. Could Ireland be one of those last-day contenders? As perhaps the least changed side of the half-dozen, with five runners-up finishes and three third-placed finishes in the eight years of the Six Nations, of course they could. Eddie O'Sullivan talks merely of recreating or replicating last season's Six Nations form and maintaining their "high-risk" game.
While he appears the most inflexible of the six coaches, you can see where O'Sullivan is coming from. The IRB statistics don't support a supposed high-risk, offloading, ball-in-hand game at the World Cup, but last season Ireland were the highest offloaders in the Six Nations after cutting loose on the final day in Rome.
Significantly though, 40 of Ireland's 68 offloads were attributed to the three-quarter-line and not alone has Denis Hickie retired, Shane Horgan has been sidelined since December 15th by a rib injury while both Brian O'Driscoll and Gordon D'Arcy have struggled for form. Munster's restorative powers are a timely fillip, but once again O'Driscoll and D'Arcy are the keys. There also remains the evidence of the World Cup that the coaching/playing set-up has become stale.
Ireland do have the itinerary that yielded two of those Triple Crowns in the last four years. Thus, having hosted Italy, Ireland will have to travel to Paris in round two to face a redesigned French side that will either be coming off a restorative win over the Scots or seeking redemption. Either way, they'll be desperate to put on a show for their first outing at home since the World Cup.
Even so, Ireland would be favoured to have at least three home wins entering the final Saturday, March 15th, when they head to Twickenham seeking a record-equalling fifth successive win over England, although one suspects this unlikely sequence cannot last forever. You also suspect that, like much else of what is about to evolve over the next seven weeks, it won't be that straightforward.
