LONDON, 24 January 2008 — An unpredictable World Cup has led to an intriguing Six Nations, where three new coaches, numerous retirements and changing tactics have thrown the tournament wide open.
Defending champions France, Wales and Italy all have new coaches, and, along with England, Ireland and Wales, are all seeking to improve their performances from last year’s World Cup.
Ireland opens this year’s tournament, which was launched yesterday, by hosting Italy on Feb. 2, while England plays Wales at Twickenham. A day later, France travels to Scotland. England coach Brian Ashton said the tournament is “extremely open.” “I’m not going to predict a winner because I can’t,” he said. “There’s always an unpredictability about Six Nations rugby. “This year, there’s an uncertainty too because of the three new coaching staff and it’s going to be a really fascinating tournament.”
After a poor lead-up and a disastrous start, including a 36-0 loss to South Africa, England unexpectedly made the World Cup final only to be beaten by the Springboks.
“We played to our potential, we played in a particular way and it was successful,” said Ashton, who signed a new open-ended contract in December.
“We want to move on during the Six Nations, but I’m not going to put a timeline on it.” Captain Phil Vickery said the fallout of the World Cup had been difficult, with Lawrence Dallaglio and Mike Catt criticizing Ashton’s methods before they retired.
“Mentally this year, particularly, it’s going to be very difficult for everyone with the things that happened in the World Cup,” Vickery said. “But in getting together this week, the excitement surrounding the team has been fantastic.” France’s hopes of winning the World Cup on home soil ended in the semifinals with a loss to England. After Bernard Laporte’s contract as coach ended, Marc Lievremont was installed as coach — and he’s quickly made his mark.
Lievremont, a former France international, has made Lionel Nallet captain, named six rookies and dropped lock Sebastian Chabal, a fan favorite at the World Cup, for the Scotland game. “We wanted to start from scratch for French rugby after the World Cup,” Lievremont said.
Ireland nearly edged France to last year’s Six Nations title after winning the Triple Crown. It had entered the World Cup as one of the favorites, but spectacularly collapsed and exited in the group stage.
“We had a good look at it, a bit of soul searching as well,” Ireland coach Eddie O’Sullivan said. “And we met as a squad before Christmas and discussed and put it to bed, and said we’d draw a line in the sand and move on to Six Nations.”
There’s been little change in the squad, but O’Sullivan insists the problems at the World Cup were not with personnel but from failing to play well as a unit.
Wales won the Six Nations in 2005, but lost form soon after and that poor run extended to the World Cup, where it failed to qualify from the group stage. Gareth Jenkins was fired as coach before Wales even returned home and Warren Gatland of New Zealand has been brought in to revive the rugby-mad province.
“I’ve been really impressed with their energy,” Gatland said of his team.
“And that’s a really positive start to what’s going to be a really challenging tournament for us.”
Scotland enters this year’s competition without the numerous injury concerns that helped it to finish last in 2007. Scotland focused on developing talent — it had the youngest squad at the World Cup — and lost to Argentina in the quarterfinals.
“Our young squad has learned enormously from it,” Scotland coach Frank Hadden said. “The biggest feeling after the tournament was one of frustration that we didn’t fulfill our potential.”
Italy aims to continue its improvement. Last year, it finally won two games in a single Six Nations for the first time since joining in 2000 and narrowly missed out on reaching the World Cup quarterfinals.
And with rugby growing in popularity in Italy and experienced tactician Nick Mallett as the coach, the side is aiming for greater stamina as it builds a bigger player base.
“There’s no doubt that Italy can compete for 60 minutes,” said Mallett, who joined three months ago after Pierre Berbizier didn’t renew his contract. “It’s those last 20 minutes that we’ve got to really make sure our bench comes off.
“When they first got in there (the Six Nations), I imagine the Italians felt a bit of an inferiority complex, which they have completely got rid of now.”
