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Tom Hamilton, Senior Writer
The 2024 Six Nations will be a tournament of change. There will be emerging heroes and new captains all juxtaposed against the jarring absence of familiar stalwarts. The championship crosses the divide of competition and event; it’s a time in the year where bragging rights are arm-wrestled, bold statements made and every small decision dissected. All of this played out under the banner of national rivalry.
This is a transitional Six Nations. This will be the first championship in a generation where several mainstays are absent — there will be no Johnny Sexton, Owen Farrell, Alun Wyn Jones, Dan Biggar or Stuart Hogg to name a few. Antoine Dupont, the French superstar, is also absent as he is prioritising Sevens and a home Olympics over the Six Nations. There is a new head coach in Italy’s Gonzalo Queseda, and of the six countries, five have new captains.
– Six Nations Week 1 team news: Crowley named as Ireland fly-half
It is going to be a topsy-turvy competition where the Grand Slam decider could yet happen before the other four countries have played. Ireland and France meet this Friday in Marseille for the opening match of the championship. On form, this should dictate who will end up winning the trophy. But it will be fascinating to see how both teams have compartmentalised what happened last October. Both teams went into the World Cup as trophy hopefuls but tripped over at the quarterfinal stage. “If we beat Ireland and we have a good tournament, maybe people will talk less about the World Cup,” France’s Thomas Ramos said. The relentless nature of the sport means that three-month gap between the end of the World Cup and the start of the Six Nations is when major overhaul occurs.
First to holders Ireland, who took the Grand Slam last year under British & Irish Lions-coach-in-waiting Andy Farrell. They will be captained by Peter O’Mahony, the 101-Test cap veteran, who has taken over from the retired Sexton. “Ever since I was a boy starting off in the game, I have always dreamed of captaining Ireland,” O’Mahony said. He is an example of endurance and resilience — whatever back-row rivals have been in his way, O’Mahony has held them off, much like his captaincy predecessor.
Sexton’s final act in the famous green jersey was being applauded off the Stade de France pitch after losing to New Zealand in October, leaving behind sizeable shoes and the pressure of that No.10 shirt. Jack Crowley will be the man tasked with starting in Marseille on Friday. “I think if I was to compare myself directly to [Sexton] it would be difficult because he’s been to those big occasions and has delivered on them,” Crowley said. “For me, it’s about going and doing it.” He has Harry Byrne, Ciaran Frawley and Sam Prendergast hot on his heels for that fly-half shirt but there will be other Ireland regulars missing in Mack Hansen, Rob Herring and Dave Kilcoyne so it is Calvin Nash who gets the right-wing spot for Marseille.
Absentees aside for Ireland, Farrell and O’Mahony, it is a case of picking up where they left off pre-World Cup. Four-year cycles be damned. “Is this a new start?” Farrell said. “It’s not because of everything we’ve been through. We want to continue to grow and you don’t do that by just cutting the legs off it. Competition for places is premium and it has to stay that way. I don’t buy into all the talk of a four-year cycle that tends to come around when World Cups are finished.”
For France this will be a case of home away from home as they play Ireland in Marseille, Italy in Lille and then England in Lyon as the Stade de France is getting ready to play a role in the Paris Olympics. And those thoughts of Games glory have robbed the championship of its brightest star. For Fabien Galthie and France, the question hovering over their prospects will be how they cope without the outstanding Dupont. He captained France through the last World Cup, complete with a metal plate in his face, but with him looking towards the Olympics, it is on Gregory Alldritt to lead Les Bleus into this championship.
They have had their fair share of injuries too, with Romain Ntamack still recovering from his ACL injury and Anthony Jelonch, giant lock Emmanuel Meafou, Jean-Baptiste Gros and Thibaud Flament all injured. A further six players have been dropped from their World Cup squad due to form, but in their place, there are exciting new prospects, including forward Posolo Tuilagi. Expect to see a strong Bordeaux-Begles influence how France plan their attack with Maxime Lucu and Matthieu Jalibert half-backs for Friday evening.
Once Friday’s clash has played out, attention will turn from Marseille to Rome. Saturday’s opener, and the second game of the championship, will be between Italy and England. Italy have new boss Queseda in charge, but retain Michele Lamaro as captain, the only skipper left from last year’s championship. Queseda will look to build on the work Kieran Crowley did while also picking through why their World Cup collapsed in the manner it did as they fell 96-17 to New Zealand and 60-7 to France. They have promising domestic form behind them with both Treviso and Zebre playing well, and while Queseda has talked up Italy’s attacking ambitions, expect there to be some pragmatism in the midst of it, a focus on playing intelligent rugby rather than with reckless abandon. But with the wooden spoon in their luggage, they will be looking to rid themselves of some unfortunate baggage having lost 24 home games on the trot in the championship since their win over Ireland in 2013.
“The Italian team today, we have a kind of identity when we talk about rugby style, but I think we have to define even deeper the identity of the team,” Queseda said. “I’m a Latin, I have an Anglo-Saxon way of thinking but I feel like emotions are really important, like any human being, but for us it’s a little bit more, especially when we talk about rugby. My plan is to work deeply with them to define together the kind of identity. It’s not Gonzalo’s identity.”
They will look to snap that losing streak against Steve Borthwick’s England. They have a new-look feel to the group, with Jamie George the man chosen to captain the group in place of Owen Farrell, who has stepped aside from international rugby. How England fare without Farrell is something they will have to answer during this championship. For so long England had a familiar feel to them, but this is a team seeking a new identity without the retired Courtney Lawes, Jonny May and Ben Youngs, while they are also without injured Ollie Lawrence, Tom Curry, George Martin, Manu Tuilagi and Lewis Ludlam. Then there are the exiles with Jack Willis, Henry Arundell, Joe Marchant and David Ribbans in France. They suffered a late injury blow in the week building up to Italy with Marcus Smith ruled out with a calf strain.
Borthwick will put his trust in youth and uncapped players. Expect a fresh feel to this England team in this championship with back-row Ethan Roots, centre Fraser Dingwall and flyer Immanuel Feyi-Waboso in line for their debuts. While it will be a familiar look to the half-backs for Italy in Danny Care and George Ford, expect to see the Northampton Saints axis of Alex Mitchell and Fin Smith getting a run out at some stage (Mitchell a doubt for Italy). The absentees in the centres means Dingwall should be alongside Henry Slade. And keeping the band all together will be George with a collective desire to put right some dismal Six Nations performances with two wins from each of their previous three championships.
“Our record at Twickenham, hasn’t been good enough over the last few years but this is a new team,” George said. “We are having ongoing discussions about how we can engage with fans more. Little things, like potentially lengthening the walk into the stadium. Danny Care wants a kiss-cam.
“If we’re completely honest, English rugby hasn’t been in the best place with teams going bust in the Premiership and grassroots numbers falling. We are aware that, at the top of the game, we have an opportunity to reach as many people across England as we can — and change perceptions.”
Out of all the teams in the Six Nations, it is Wales who have had the biggest tournament-to-tournament overhaul. They host Scotland on Saturday in the final match of the opening weekend — Scotland looking to end a 22-year wait for a win in Cardiff. Gatland’s Wales are young and largely inexperienced at Test level — 16 of the 34 have 10 caps or fewer. They will be skippered by Dafydd Jenkins with World Cup co-captains Dewi Lake and Jac Morgan injured. And without Taulupe Faletau, Leigh Halfpenny, Alun Wyn Jones, Dan Biggar, Ken Owens and Justin Tipuric, alongside the injured Christ Tshiunza and the NFL-bound Louis Rees-Zammit, that is a wealth of experience absent. But Gatland is looking to this as a chance to build a new team, with second-row Jenkins at the forefront and Sam Costelow steering things from No.10.
“Despite the doom and gloom, I’m excited about the youngsters we’ve got coming through and what we can potentially achieve,” Gatland said. “We’ve got five new caps and eight who have never experienced the Six Nations, but I see this as a period of real opportunity, for the whole of Welsh rugby, to have a reset. It has always been the case with Wales that you write us off at your peril. Do that and you could get caught with your pants down.”
But they will face a stern test first up with Scotland travelling to Cardiff. They have opted for co-captains for the championship with Rory Darge and Finn Russell picked, as Gregor Townsend said there were no guarantees former skipper Jamie Ritchie would make the first XV. “Appointing co-captains for this year’s Guinness Six Nations allows us to further grow and develop the leadership within the squad,” Townsend said. “Both are highly respected within our squad and have been part of our leadership group for some time. I’m sure they will thrive with this responsibility and lean on our other leaders to drive certain aspects of our preparation, mindset and performance.”
There are four uncapped players in their squad with England-capped prop Alec Hepburn included alongside Will Hurd, Aaron Reed and Harry Paterson but there is a familiar feel to this group, one that will be without WP Nel and Darcy Graham for their opener. Darge is still a doubt as he recovers from a knee injury while Grant Gilchrist will also miss the trip to Wales through suspension. So it should be Russell leading Scotland into their first action in the championship, the mercurial fly-half one of the most eye-catching players in the sport. He’ll be essential to their game plan and whether we see the free-flowing Scotland of the 2023 championships, or the more pragmatic — and flawed — team we saw in the World Cup.
Away from the stars and on-field drama, keep an eye out on the new technology being used with players wearing mouthguards which deliver in-game statistics to medical staff. There will also be a welcome moment of history with Hollie Davidson becoming the first female referee to officiate in a men’s Six Nations match when she takes on the assistant referee role for England-Wales in the second weekend.
This is a Six Nations which starts and finishes in France, beginning in Marseille and culminating in France-England in Lyon. The trophy could end up being draped in red, white and blue come that final weekend, but rarely does the path of this championship run in a predictable way. The favourites are France and Ireland, but the other four nations will all want to have their say in a competition where for the next six weeks, pubs, bars and sofas will be packed with rivalries on the line.