Will Scotland coach Andy Robinson have reason to smile after this year's Six Nations battle? © PA

As 2010 moves from January towards February it comes to my favourite part of the year, Six Nations time. A snell bite to the wind, still the odd cruddy bit of snow still on the hills and the sound of Brian Moore/Jeremy Guscott/Jonathan Davies being argued with in living rooms all over the land. Well, sections of it.

We Scots have had little to shout about since the last time I was graciously allowed to post here on fanzone. Not many Lions. No team getting out of the Heineken Cup group stages. We still don't have much of a standoff, we still can't score tries, and Euan Murray still isn't available to play (for the opener at least, falling as it does on a Sunday) so our scrum may not be as much of a force as it could be. And despite some decent evidence to the contrary offered in South Africa over last summer, Ross Ford still needs to practice his line-out throwing. So far, so 2009. So no hope?

Since the last Six Nations of course we have had a change at the top - we now have a steely Englishman in charge in the shape of Andy Robinson who after engineering victory over Australia is fast on his way to national treasure status (as is Matt Giteau). He seems to be picking on form so we get the right scrum half and captain in the shape of Chris Cusiter, who spent a lot of last year in form and on the bench despite our clamouring. We still have Chris Paterson who is the world's best goal kicker on most days so the points are there if the breakdown lottery continues and we can play the game in the right areas of the park. A decent back row (Barclay, Beattie and usually Brown but probably Strokosch for France) who have been helping their team to the top of the Magners doesn't hurt in that regard either.

Tries are a worry though: we still have the pace and attacking instinct of the Evans brothers but Morrison at 12 seems to relish contact more than offloading to get it out to them, and we are all hoping to see more of what Alex Grove can do in attack, having proven his defensive mettle in the autumn.

The old stand-off debate has flared up again here in recent weeks, with Dan Parks in the form of his life for league leaders Glasgow but Phil Godman seen as the lesser of two evils at International level despite a pretty poor kicking game. We do have a young tyro of whom much is hoped in the shape of Ruaridh Jackson but his inclusion in the squad is probably more of a learning curve thing. Still, a couple of good A games coupled with early defeats for the main team might see him thrown in at the deep end. But we hope it doesn't come to that. Must think positive.

Let us not forget that within this tournament still somewhere lies that spark of excitement and possibility, the sort of thing that the late great Bill McLaren nurtured in all of us during our youth watching it on the telly, that gets us talking with fellow fans about great games of rugby whoever was playing and keeps us all looking forward to this time of year with, dare I say it, hope. All we really want from our teams is to bring back that spark once a year.

That, and a Grand Slam.

Rory Baldwin is the Editor of Scottish Rugby Blog.

So, it seems that even if the French squad isn't that steady when it comes to the back-row, at least Marc Lièvremont, Didier Retières and Emile Ntamack have a pretty good idea who will be in the forward pack that will be playing at the next World Cup.

When they announced their 30-man squad for the opening of the 2010 Six Nations, the only surprise was that they picked 16 forwards instead of 17. Usually, the French always select 2 players per position, with just one exception: three hookers. Here there was only two, William Servat and Dimitri Szarzewski. But if Szarzewski’s current injury proves to be serious, it will be Perpignan's Guilhem Guirado who will be coming off the bench to replace Servat. Luckily, it will be the only injury that French coaches will have to deal with after the final round of Heineken Cup Pool games.

And that's a relief not only for the French coaches, but also for all the French fans. At last, it looks like Les Bleus are ready to build for the short term (this year's tournament) as well as for the mid-term (New Zealand 2011).

Even uncapped prop Luc Ducalcon has already been called into a previous squad. But what will be another reason for a nail-biting season is the fact that there are still no certainties when it comes to all positions from nine to 15. The only player that was really 100% sure to be in the starting lineup was Julien Dupuy, but he is banned for the rest of the season. Morgan Parra (Clermont) and François Trinh-Duc (Montpellier) will be starters, but they really need to stay on the pitch as long as possible to further their claims. Otherwise, the comeback kid from Toulouse, Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, will prove that he is still one of the best tacticians in French rugby. If he is given more than 30 minutes, it will be difficult to get him out of the side.

The 19th round of the Top 14, to be played Wednesday 27th and Thursday 28th January, could change the whole situation once again. Most of these players will be on the field, four days after the Heineken Cup, in order to give more time to the French squad's preparation. But if some of these players get injured because of the stupid domestic calendar, no doubt they will have plenty of time to think about this ridiculous situation. And French fans will once again have many things to moan about.

Jean Palfrey

Another Six Nations is fast approaching. And as an Irishman, I find myself in the unprecedented position of not having seen my team lose in over a year. Now admittedly that year excluded a Southern Hemisphere tour, but all the same, you’d think I would be a wee bit more confident facing our traditional European foes. But, no – I don’t have a good feeling about this one. Maybe it is because, after decades of nearly having a consistently good team, I’m just not ready for that step up. Maybe it’s because during Ireland’s second Grand Slam, I witnessed so many opportunities for it all to go horribly (but in my mind, predictably) wrong.

That gut wrenching moment in the Millennium Stadium when Paddy Wallace conceded the penalty straight in front of the posts and (from where I was sitting) just fractionally outside the 22, was only the pinnacle of angst from a Six Nations campaign which at moments was hairier than Chabal in a wind-tunnel. Ireland had more than enough opportunities to blow it – and the fact that they failed to grasp those opportunities with the open arms we have associated with previous generations of Irish teams, was I feel more luck than judgment.

We often hear that winning or losing a match is down to the bounce of a ball. Well Ireland rode their luck last year and the ball bounced for them. Had a ball bounced the other way; had a player taken a bit of a heftier knock (O’Driscoll for example); had a ref interpreted a law slightly differently; or had the opposition made a different decision (say, Hook to kick a long penalty rather than Jones); last season could have ended oh so differently.

Perhaps I’m doing Kidney a disservice – perhaps he has turned around the nearly-men, got rid of the ‘plucky-loser’ mindset. We didn’t see a huge change in personnel from the O’Sullivan years, and I don’t believe that some of those old squad members suddenly developed new talent under the new regime, nor did they suddenly become fitter, but they did perform with a level of individual consistency; Add in a bit of newer blood with a belief that they could actually retain their places, and maybe lady-luck was not our Most Valuable Player after all.

Many years ago on this web site, I learned the French idiom, “With ifs, Paris would be small enough to put it in a bottle …” (in English we have a similar sentiment involving my trans-gender aunt). Last year's achievement by Ireland will be recorded in history as played five; won five. Even the bruises on the Welsh stranger whose hand I squeezed during that Stephen Jones penalty will eventually fade. Nobody will remember how close it was to played five; won two. Perversely, the speed at which last season's glory becomes nothing more than a statistic is dependent on how well Ireland play in this and future seasons.

Much as I appreciated my late father telling me of the 1948 Slam, the 2009 remake is not a story I want to be repeating to my children. Yes it was a great result, or five great results, but I’m not sure it was five great performances. We are 2009 Six Nations Champions and Grand Slam winners; but this is 2010 – there are a few more new faces in the squad – plenty of individual promise from the likes of Sexton. These players need to make sure that seven or eight years from now, commentators aren’t repeating, ‘This is the last chance of Grand Slam glory for this golden generation’. This squad has five great games in them – maybe stringing together even four and a fortunate one-point win in the 2010 competition isn’t so unrealistic.

So it seems, I’ve talked myself into a spot of uncharacteristic optimism. Come Saturday February 6, I can maybe settle down with a degree of hope and only a few pints of black anesthetic to numb that nagging doubt at the back of my head. But Italy at Croker will, I hope answer very few questions. I have a suspicion that it will be the following week when the viewing of Paris will be a lot more comfortable through a bottle. A win there and the momentum will start. Wales in Dublin is certainly not a foregone conclusion, but if the team has any pretensions at being great, then a win is required. England have been getting a terrible press in recent times and a lot of it has been deserved, but I honestly don’t think they are a bad team, beating Ireland at Twickenham is certainly not beyond them. If and by now it’s a huge IF, we are four from four going into the last game on 20th March, then Scotland is all that stands between us and glory – didn’t we say something like that in 2001?

Heart says five wins. Head says three wins, two losses.

BR

This weekend has seen some of the most intense, gripping rugby that we have seen all season, and the eight quarter-finalists in Europe's premier club competition are now known.

The rugby has been as close to Test-match level as it gets, with many tight games and so much at stake for both teams, and with the Six Nations only a couple of weeks away, this could be the best indication of how each nation will perform.

The teams that have qualified for the Heineken Cup knockout stages are as follows: Munster, Leinster, Clermont, Toulouse, Biarritz, Stade Francais, Ospreys and Northampton.

Based on the number of teams for each county, this is how each nation ranks:

1. France
2. Ireland
3. Wales
4. England
5. Scotland
6. Italy

It wouldn't be a huge shock if the Six Nations table looks exactly the same come March 20th.

Most pundits have installed Ireland as the favourites to retain their title, but Marc Lievremont has been forging his side in his own peculiar way, and with victories over the All Blacks and Springboks in 2009, I'm backing France to lift the Six Nations trophy.

If we base our prediction on Heineken Cup form, things are looking good for Les Bleus.

What do you think? Can Ireland win back-to-back titles and prove me wrong?

Have your say at www.therugbyblog.co.uk

James Hutchison
Editor - The Rugby Blog

Well you have to give it to Wales coach Warren Gatland, he certainly knows how to spring a surprise with his personnel announcements. Two years ago he shocked us by picking a team that was essentially the Ospreys plus Martyn Williams and Gethin Jenkins (with winning results I might add). This time it's the inclusion of some faces who most Welsh fans would struggle to recognise if they were standing at the bar of their local. Come to think of it, they probably wouldn't be allowed in in the first place, so nevermind.

Yes, 17-year-old Tom Prydie and 19-year-old Kristian Phillips have really set the tongues wagging among the Welsh rugby fraternity. The inclusion of the young Ospreys wingers is certainly surprising, not to mention controversial given the inexperience of the pair, who spend the bulk of their time playing for Swansea and Neath in the Premiership. Indeed, Dragons centre Rhodri Gomer-Davies has criticised Gatland for picking the Ospreys pair over Newport-Gwent's Aled Brew and Richard Fussell.

As much as Gomer-Davies is right to stick up for his team-mates, I think he's missing the point somewhat. The odds of Prydie or Phillips making a matchday squad are slim, and in many ways this situation is similar to when Sven Goran Eriksson picked young Theo Walcott to go to the World Cup in 2006 - he didn't get on the field, but he learned a lot just by being around the rest of the squad. While the thought of Gatland and company using the biggest event in the Northern Hemisphere rugby calendar for youth development will no doubt cause the blood to boil for some, we're just over 18 months away from a World Cup, and players such as Prydie and Phillips could be in with a shout if their rapid development continues.

Consider this - if one of Halfpenny or Shane goes down in New Zealand in 2011, would you rather have Aled Brew lining up on the wing, or Prydie? Right now you'd probably pick Brew, he's not really international calibre, but he's experienced and you know what you're getting. However, if Prydie and Phillips, and other young Welsh players for that matter, are constantly around the Wales team, learning from the likes of Williams, Jenkins and Stephen Jones, then they will be far better equipped to step up to the big stage when the time comes.

Too often Welsh youngsters have either been ignored or dropped in at the deep end where they've sank or swam. This new approach could actually benefit the crop of promising Welsh players such as Prydie and Phillips - and also youngsters such as Sam Warburton, Tom Smith, Ben Lewis and Bradley Davies.

All in all this has no doubt served as a helpful distraction to the real problems that should really be worrying Welsh fans - the injury crisis at scrum half, the lack of form of some key players and the lack of creativity in the centres - which have been pushed onto the back burner. But that's a whole other blog, which I'll no doubt be going over in great detail in the next few weeks...

Josh Gardner

This year's Six Nations will officially kick off on February 6 but for France things really start on January 20 when coach Marc Lièvremont names his squad for the Championship. But THE question on every fan's lips is how many times will his line-up change during the Championship?

Will the French coach stick with the same group for the whole Championship in order to build some team momentum? Or will he want to see as many players as possible one last time, in order to keep everyone on their toes ahead of the next RWC that kicks off in just 20 months time?

Perpignan star Maxime Mermoz will miss the first game against Scotland - who will replace him? Will the Catalan centre return to the side for the remainder of the battle? Who will get the nod at scrum-half in the wake of six month ban handed down to Stade Français No.9 Julien Dupuy? Perhaps Morgan Parra - but he is not guaranteed a start with Clermont. Or maybe Frédéric Michalak, the talented but erratic utility back from Toulouse?

The fans have had enough of experimentation - they want to see France go and win the title and not just another talent scouting campaign. France will play at home against Ireland, Grand Slam winner last year, and England, who they haven't beaten at home since 2006. Since the game turned professional, every French coach has won at least one Grand Slam - Jean-Claude Skréla alone in 1997, and with Pierre Villepreux in 1998, Bernard Laporte in 2002 and 2004 - and fans want 2010 to be Lièvremont's year.

Jean Palfrey

...for the 2010 Six Nations Championship!

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