England manager Martin Johnson has plenty of food for thought © Getty Images

The lack of real verve in this England team does them few favours writes Stephen Jones in the Sunday Times.

"Players such as Ugo Monye and Riki Flutey played with a fizz on the Lions tour, but here yesterday they were again subsumed into the morass. England desperately need a bigger profile in the media, they need the players to be out and seeking love and affection, not only for sponsors’ days but in the country at large.

"In my opinion, and I hold it strongly, the very best thing that could happen to this misfiring England team would be for their next game to take place at a big stadium away from south-west London, somewhere the viewing lines, the colour of the seats, the pubs and fixtures and fittings en route to the stadium, would all be different.

"And to further boost that effervescence, I think that England should cancel every training session between now and the Calcutta Cup in Edinburgh in a fortnight. Do not watch a DVD, do not sit in a team room, do not listen to the 50th speech of the season by the team manager or the captain, do not retreat behind the luxury and the walls of Pennyhill Park, their headquarters. Just go to Scotland, go onto the field and play, play with no checks and balances and preconception. Surprise your followers, who are all sitting right back in their seats, not on the edges."

Ireland edged out England in a war of attrition according to Eamonn Sweeney in the Irish Independent.

"Despite the fact that the home team owned the ball for long periods, this game fitted the pattern of several recent encounters between the two countries. It was close, it was edgy, what entertainment there was derived from suspense rather than quality of play and, in the end, Ireland won it.

"Perhaps we shouldn't have. England spent considerably more time in our half than we did in theirs. Yet, for all their bulk and bustle, that old combination of a ponderous pack and lateral three-quarters ensured that once more we came away with the points. Ireland simply had the cutting edge that England don't possess any more, something highlighted by the fact that it was our two wings who bagged the three tries."

As Wales proved on Friday, if you turn the screw on Marc Lièvremont’s talented team they are eminently beatable, so writes Paul Ackford in the Sunday Telegraph.

"So, only England stand between France and their first Grand Slam since 2004. It is true that France still have to overcome Italy in Paris next match up, but it is inconceivable that they will let that one slip. But England, also at the Stade de France? That could be a different matter altogether.

"Friday night's tumultuous encounter with Wales in Cardiff served up two apparently mutually exclusive truths. One, that France are far and away the most complete side in the championship. And two, as Wales aptly demonstrated when they rattled them for the first 30 minutes of the second half, that they are also eminently beatable."

It's only early days in the Super 14 but the Crusaders look a little worrying - even after that 35-6 win over the Sharks on Friday night, so writes Richard Loe in the Herald on Sunday.

"Their loss to the Reds in the previous round raised eyebrows and even though they won well in the end against the Sharks, I thought they looked a bit fragile.

"They are not looking all that convincing up front although Brad Thorn and Richie McCaw are not properly into stride yet. The Crusaders committed only the tackler and one other to most of the rucks and bulked up the defence. That worked well and they finished strongly - but that approach might struggle against better sides."

It was great while it lasted but the honeymoon is well and truly over for coach Andy Robinson according to Iain Morrison in the Scotland on Sunday.

"Was that win over the Wallabies really just three short months ago? Because it feels like ancient history after this performance.

"...With Scotland defending a narrow three-point advantage, and never looking comfortable doing so, Italian substitute scrum-half Paolo Canavosio proved the home hero by popping up with the only try of the match with just 11 minutes left on the clock. He had only been on the field for quarter of an hour. It followed a cracking break by centre Gonzalo Canale, who cut in on the angle and Jim Hamilton may not even have noticed the centre as he flew past his nose. Canale was stopped in his tracks but offloaded to Canavosio, who wrong-footed the defence to dot down under the posts. It was fitting that the only try of the match proved decisive."

Martin Johnson's men were beaten again but the Independent on Sunday's Hugh Godwin insist the signs of progress are there.

"There were seven minutes remaining of a bizarrely unbalanced match, in which England made only 30 tackles, less than a third of their opponents, when Ireland threw to a line-out on the home 22. England were 16-13 ahead, the latest score having been that old reliable, a Jonny Wilkinson drop-goal off the right foot. They had, perhaps crucially, just substituted Danny Care, the scrum-half whose switchback match had been on a significant upswing. The line-out was caught by Paul O'Connell and a huge gap opened at the tail. Tomas O'Leary darted a few metres before passing to Bowe, who bulleted past Wilkinson's inside shoulder and fended off James Haskell and Ugo Monye to score. Ronan O'Gara, on for Jonny Sexton as a steady hand on the No 10 tiller, converted. Though England worked a chance at the other end, Ireland were able to defend a powerful driving maul and the pleadings to the referee by Nick Easter and Steve Borthwick for a penalty for a deliberate collapse or the put-in at the scrum amounted to hopeless begging."

Writing in The Observer, Eddie Butler reviews the latest Six Nations action.

"Possession is not a problem for England. They win tons of the wretched thing, from the scrum, the lineout and under the high ball. But the speed with which they advance grows slower and slower the longer they have the ball in their big arms.

"The positional play of Jonny Wilkinson will come under scrutiny again, and it is true that he lay a long way back from his scrum-half. The communication skills of Danny Care inside Wilkinson and Riki Flutey outside him will be questioned, as will the eyes of Delon Armitage, who sees more openings from full-back than any other player. But the opportunities for the England half-backs and their outside three-quarters are determined by the speed at which the ball is delivered to them. Ireland ground the breakdown to a halt and England could do nothing."

Ireland's Ronan O'Gara took the unprecedented step of replying publically to media criticism © Getty Images

A week is a long time in politics, but what about a fortnight in sport? The two-week mid-Six Nations break is seen as crucial for the teams and players to recover. But in this vacuum everyone seems to get a little bit edgy. Former Ireland captain Keith Wood writes in the Daily Telegraph.

"An opinion piece by Kevin Myers, of the Irish Independent, on Ireland's loss to France had the curious reaction of a published retort by Ronan O'Gara. Curious, because sportsmen rarely ever respond in kind. Myers has now countered and we are all waiting with bated breath for the saga to continue. In short, Myers blamed O'Gara for Ireland's defeat in Paris, but the fly-half hit back, saying "I do not accept being castigated by a journalist who I suspect knows nothing about rugby".

"An opinion piece is exactly that, and in his defence of the attack on his credentials, Myers declares correctly "one does not need to be a carpenter to see that the chair keeps falling over". Equally, O'Gara is entitled to his reply, although I can't remember another player taking that right. By doing so it leaves O'Gara open to the question, 'will he now congratulate a writer when a supportive piece is written?'"

Writing in the New Zealand Herald, Wynne Gray rues the fact that the All Blacks have only had a couple of contenders to qualify for a list of halfback greats in the past two decades.

"More than 20 players have worn the black No 9 jersey in that time with Graeme Bachop, by some distance, the classiest performer. Bachop was brilliant, the best of the lot. Like all players he had moments when his game left him, but the fundamentals of his iron-wristed bullet pass, fierce acceleration, cover defence and tidy kicking game placed him at the head of the queue.

By dint of his longevity, Justin Marshall will have many supporters. What he lacked in some classic skills he superceded with his combative nature and rugby instincts in an extended career. The current crew of Jimmy Cowan, Piri Weepu, Brendon Leonard, Andy Ellis and Alby Mathewson - yes they have all toured with the All Blacks in the past few years - all have their strengths without that commanding presence."

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The New Zealand Rugby Union has tried to soften Graham Henry's image by encouraging the former headmaster to be less "principally". Dylan Cleaver writes in the New Zealand Herald.

"The revelation is included in a 12-part series starting next week on nzherald.co.nz, The State of Rugby in New Zealand, an investigation of the issues facing the sport a year out from the World Cup.

"In a piece about the All Black coaching panel, NZRU chief executive Steve Tew tells of how it can be difficult to explain to the All Black coach that he is sometimes perceived as taciturn.

"Graham Henry gets nothing but positive interaction with New Zealanders," Tew said. "So when we're talking to him about perhaps his image and how we would like him to not be so principally and grumpy, at times he doesn't get it because when he talks to people they are very positive."

Bulls great Victor Matfield is going all out to play in one last World Cup, the Sydney Morning Herald's Rupert Guinness reports from Pretoria.

"From the day Victor Matfield started his rugby career in South Africa at a time ''when it was all about brawl and aggression'', he understood never to let his guard down.

"After cutting his teeth in one of the most confrontational and strategically challenging positions, Matfield has come to be regarded as one of the all-time great second-rowers, an astute leader and lineout general. But the 32-year-old Bulls captain knows the day will come, sooner rather than later, when he turns his shoulder and a young challenger will launch an irresistible bid for his throne.That day is not yet here, as anyone who has seen Matfield play in recent years would attest."

Reflecting on his brother Thom's serious injury for the first time, Max Evans tells Stuart Bathgate in The Scotsman that his brother's focus was not on a return to the game but simply a steady return to ordinary fitness.

"The story of the past 14 days has been one of gradual improvement – a graphic contrast to the frightening picture which steadily became clear to Max on the day of the game. "At half-time I knew he had been concussed and there might be something to do with his neck, but it was very vague," he recalled. "We (Scotland] were in a good position and I was really focused on the game. It wasn't made out to me like it was anything major, so I didn't think much of it. I just thought the best.

"...Although his present tendency is to advise his brother against playing again, Max does not blame either rugby in general, or the Welsh players who tackled Thom in particular, for the injury. "How many guys do you see running flat out into contact? James Robson has been amazing and has been very close to me. He has told me it is the worst injury he has ever been involved in, and that from a man who has been involved in several Lions tours and Scotland tours. To say that shows that he was very unlucky."

Writing in The Independent, former England coach Brian Ashton insists that with the right mentality, rugby can be played under any set of laws you care to name.

"Super 14 has had a bad press up here in Britain – the critics see it as a form of rugby candyfloss invented by, and played for, television – while the more die-hard union followers have dismissed league as too simplistic and predictable to be truly satisfying. I disagree on both counts: in fact, I think these barbs demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding of the demands placed on those who play these dynamic brands of rugby.

"...I've been thoroughly cheesed off by the continuous stream of coaches, administrators, player and media pundits claiming that it's impossible to play rugby under the current laws in force at the tackle area. With the right mentality, rugby can be played under any set of laws you care to name. The high level of invention and creativity frequently seen in both Super 14 and Super League proves as much. If entertainment is part and parcel of professional sport – and I don't see that there's much of a case to be made against the proposition – here are two tournaments that seem to have their priorities right."

England's collective and individual caution have made Jonny Wilkinson an increasingly ineffective presence according to Kevin Mitchell in The Guardian.

"Wilkinson now stands alone in every way, separated from the action by too many yards and from the confidence of those who were once his allies by too many misgivings. The No10 who holds scoring records that will remain unbroken for years to come and who tackles with the demonic strength of 10 men, struggles with increased regularity to convince those to whom he has delivered countless thrills and victories that he is still capable of doing so.

"Yet he has been doing it most of the winter at Toulon, where the pack have been getting enough traction at the breakdown to give him space in attack. And that is the nub of his dilemma with England, whose forwards sometimes move with the urgency of cattle being herded towards an abattoir."

Writing in The Times, Gerald Davies wonders why there are no longer room for flair playes in the international game.

"As the RBS Six Nations Championship enters its third round of matches, I wonder about the absence of two players who are worthy of such a platform but are in limbo. Danny Cipriani, for England, and Gavin Henson, of Wales, are not in their national squads.

“Whereas we can sympathise with the frustrations of each nation’s management, for us admirers of them, the players are missed hugely. In many ways they are two of a kind, even if the absence of one is of his choosing and the other of someone else’s. They exude poise and play instinctively in a way entirely of their own making. There is nothing manufactured or conventional about either.

“But what of the maverick player in this day and age? What of the player of independent means and contrary mind, not exactly the drop-out or the angry young man, rather the player whose innocent idiosyncrasies enjoy an original flourish?”

In his weekly column in The Guardian, Shaun Edwards is hopeful that the presence of With two enlightened referees in Cardiff and Twickenham this weekend could witness a welcome sea change in the way rugby is played.

"Forgive the obsession if that's what it is but, if you had spent much of the past two years coaching players how to deal with high balls or stay within the law, as currently applied, at the tackle area, you'd also be happy at what appears to be a chink of light in the gloom.

“Look at the team-sheets for this weekend's internationals in Cardiff and London and you'll see a couple of South African names – Jonathan Kaplan, who is refereeing our game tonight in Cardiff against France, and Mark Lawrence, who is looking after England versus Ireland at Twickenham tomorrow.

“Both are experienced referees - Kaplan has 55 Tests behind him, including six involving Wales, and Lawrence has 21, five of them with England - but their particular relevance this weekend is the attitude they bring with them. If everything goes well, we might be in at the start one of those sea changes in the way rugby is played - and a change for the better at that."

Delme Parfitt of the Western Mail finds Wales scrum-half Mike Phillips is giving little away ahead of Friday’s crunch 6 Nations clash with France.

"The interview ended with Mike Phillips cracking up laughing. Seconds earlier he’d been asked what he thought of France’s Morgan Parra being dubbed by some as the best scrum-half in the northern hemisphere.

“’It’s people’s opinions, isn’t it?’ Phillips said in response. ‘He’s a good player, and all the best to him.’

“A ringing endorsement, it was not. But then Parra can hardly complain after labelling Ireland ‘intelligent cheats’ ahead of the clash at the Stade de France.

“One more brief question for Phillips and that was it. The Ospreys man, with one eye on the clock and the resumption of afternoon training, broke into a smile and then his trademark mischievous chuckle.

“The implication was clear: I’m saying one thing, but thinking another."

In an interview with Peter Bills in the Irish Independent, Brian Smith discusses his past with Ireland and his future with England.

"Somehow, intriguingly, Brian Smith's links with Ireland continue to infuse his rugby life. And, in the week when an Irish team from a quite different era meets England at Twickenham tomorrow, Smith made a revealing confession about his own days in the Ireland side.

"'Perhaps now, when I look back, I feel that I shouldn't have done it,' says the Australian of his brief spell as an Irish rugby international. 'Hindsight is a wonderful thing and, I have to admit, I wasn't that happy with the way things panned out in the end.'

"But a lot of water has passed under the bridge since those times, both for Ireland and for Brian Smith. He concedes he is enjoying the England job as much as any he's ever known in his coaching career. 'It's probably my biggest challenge, but I know these things don't last forever. So I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to contribute.'"

John Bentley has dismissed England as 'crap' © Getty Images

David Kelly talks to former England and British & Irish Lions wing John Bentley about Rob Andrew, Martin Johnson and why England are 'crap' in The Irish Independent.

"John Bentley likes the sound of his own voice, which is just as well because so many of those who know him love it too, a Yorkshire accent so thick it almost needs subtitles.

"I hate being called an Englishman, really," says the 41-year-old ex-England winger. "Call me a Yorkshireman instead." If he hadn't been a rugby player, he would liked to have been a porn star. His favourite drink is always the next one. You can guess he's no Coldplay fan.

"An ex-copper from Dewsbury, Bentley debuted against Ireland in the inaugural Millennium Trophy match 22 years ago. Gus Aherne, Vinnie Cunningham, John Sexton and Stevie Smith also debuted for an Irish team on familiar losing duty - 21-13."

Greg Growden reopens the file on Australia 'A' as the Wallabies look to uncover new talent ahead of the Rugby World Cup in 2011, in The Sydney Morning Herald.

"In a bid to uncover talent before next year's World Cup, the Australia A concept is back on the agenda and the Wallabies are scheduled to play several midweek games during the end-of-season northern hemisphere tour this year.

"After the success of the two midweek games during last year's tour, Australian Rugby Union officials are trying to organise two or three extra matches where they can again field fringe Test players, as well as the four internationals in November.

"The Wallabies are scheduled to start their northern jaunt in late October with a Bledisloe Cup match in Hong Kong. The next Test is expected to be against Wales in Cardiff, but the match is still to be confirmed, before the Wallabies play England, Italy and France. The extra midweekers against major club sides are likely to be played in England and France, with even a match in Ireland a strong possibility."

Peter Bills is worried by the lack of support in the opening rounds of the Super 14 in The Independent.

"The growing concern behind the state of the game across the southern hemisphere is an alarming contrast with the Six Nations tournament, which resumes this weekend.

"Try buying a ticket for the big matches of the latter, such as Wales v France in Cardiff this Friday night, or England v Ireland at Twickenham on Saturday. Apart from the ticket touts, you have little hope of finding a source.

"What is more, it is increasingly unusual to be able to get seats, certainly at the last minute, for the major Heineken Cup matches. And in France, when Paris-based Stade Francais switch one of their home games in the Top 14 domestic league from Stade Jean Bouin to the Stade de France, raising the potential capacity from around 20,000 to 80,000, they virtually sell out the Test venue."

Brian Moore recounts all 150 seconds of his refereeing debut in The Daily Telegraph.

"When a player is thrown his shirt it probably doesn't register as anything at all, but my first real problem was what to do about both teams turning up to play in red and white. With neither side wanting to change their traditional strip and bearing in mind something had to be done to make the game start, we ended up with both captains accepting my offer to do the best I could to differentiate but that any cases of mistaken identity would have to be accepted with good grace. In the end, as if by magic, 15 blue shirts were conjured up and this headache went away.

"It is this authority and indeed duty to manage the whole affair that brings a referee both pressure but also pleasure; which of us does not harbour some small leaning towards occasional dictatorship, even if benevolent? This must be the principal attraction for any person who takes to the dark side; as it is known in rugby circles.

"While many might deny this seduction, it has to be so or a referee is not doing his job. OK, they are not here to watch you, but if you don't exert an authority and thereby a significant influence, the game will not function properly and whatever spectacle they might have come to watch will not happen either."

Stephen Jones dismisses the Lions-Chiefs Super 14 try-fest as a "complete abortion of a sporting encounter" in The Times.

"Hands up, who feels that the 72-65 victory last weekend by the Chiefs over the Lions was a great rugby match? And those who think it was a rugby match at all?

"One website, which may have seen its best days, lauded this complete abortion of a sporting encounter and so did Robbie Deans, the coach of Australia. Deans has clearly forgotten that worshipping the utterly false god of tries has cost New Zealand two World Cups. Perhaps now that Kiwi Deans is with Australia, it is in his interests not to remind New Zealanders thus.

"The thinly-disguised contempt on the faces of the Sky presenters as they showed highlights of a succession of semi-opposed movements leading to a ghastly total of 18 tries against non-defending, was very telling and journalistically sound. Let us not pretend that the followers of the Chiefs, or anyone else for that matter, will not feel sick if such tripe is served up for much longer in the Super 15."

Ireland's John Hayes makes a rare appearance in front of the media earlier this week © Getty Images

The Irish Times' Johnny Watterson watched as Ireland's John Hayes took centre stage, much to the amusement of some of his team-mates.

"John Hayes has become the stately Grand Piano in the corner of the room. The owners shine it, mend it and while they can’t prevent the other kids from banging the lid or knocking it about, it remains a solid, venerable fixture that seems to mature more than age.

"A century of caps when he lines out against England on Saturday, off pitch bashfully reticent, Hayes (36) has become rugby’s unlikely professional front runner. But his longevity and prize position within coach Declan Kidney’s thinking reflects an essential gene that ensures the longer he goes on the less inclined they are to retire him.

"He started campaigning at around the same time as Brian O’Driscoll 10 years ago but short of an act of God before the weekend he will beat the Irish captain by one cap to the 100 mark, having begun his international career five years the current captain’s senior. Hayes’ first Irish frontrow line-up then was himself, Keith Wood at hooker and Peter Clohessy. Quite the legendary lot."

In a bid to uncover talent before next year's World Cup, the Australia A concept is back on the agenda and the Wallabies are scheduled to play several midweek games during the end-of-season northern hemisphere tour this year, so writes Greg Growden in the Sydney Morning Herald.

"After the success of the two midweek games during last year's tour, Australian Rugby Union officials are trying to organise two or three extra matches where they can again field fringe Test players, as well as the four internationals in November.

"The Wallabies are scheduled to start their northern jaunt in late October with a Bledisloe Cup match in Hong Kong. The next Test is expected to be against Wales in Cardiff, but the match is still to be confirmed, before the Wallabies play England, Italy and France. The extra midweekers against major club sides are likely to be played in England and France, with even a match in Ireland a strong possibility."

If England are to build on their success in the Six Nations Championship so far, there are three areas they must improve at Twickenham on Saturday - according to The Times David Hands.

"The breakdown - Yes, everyone thought that area had undergone significant improvement from the first half of this season and so it had. But against Italy in Rome, England were too passive and if they do not contest the ball on the floor better, Ireland’s back division will make them pay.

"This is often easier to say than do, given the vagaries of referees when the ball is loose. Players going off their feet at the ruck — it can be difficult to stay standing — are invariably penalised. But England must find legitimate ways of creating genuine competition, in the knowledge that turnover ball offers the best attacking options, as they proved against Wales on the opening day."

Scotland captain Chris Cusiter has accepted that he was wrong to decide to keep the ball alive for the final play of the game against Wales. Stuart bathgate reports in The Scotsman.

"Cusiter told Mike Blair to restart the match by sending the ball downfield, when a kick straight to touch would have ended the contest with the score tied at 24-24. Wales gathered Blair's kick, keeping the ball alive, and scored a converted try to win 31-24.

"The incident, which occurred when Scotland were two men down after Scott Lawson and Phil Godman had been sinbinned, was not the focus of as much post-match attention as it would have been in other circumstances. The condition of Thom Evans and Chris Paterson, both of whom had been hospitalised by injuries, was of far greater concern.

"Now, the best part of a fortnight later, and with the squad having undergone a debriefing on the game in Cardiff, Cusiter has acknowledged it would have been better to send the ball out of play and settle for a draw."

The growing concern behind the state of the game across the southern hemisphere is an alarming contrast with the Six Nations tournament, according to Peter Bills in The Independent.

"Try buying a ticket for the big matches of the latter, such as Wales v France in Cardiff this Friday night, or England v Ireland at Twickenham on Saturday. Apart from the ticket touts, you have little hope of finding a source.

"What is more, it is increasingly unusual to be able to get seats, certainly at the last minute, for the major Heineken Cup matches. And in France, when Paris-based Stade Francais switch one of their home games in the Top 14 domestic league from Stade Jean Bouin to the Stade de France, raising the potential capacity from around 20,000 to 80,000, they virtually sell out the Test venue.

"Now contrast all that with what is going on right across the southern hemisphere. This year's Super 14 started a couple of weekends ago and already, vast swathes of empty terraces and vacant seats have been discerned at most grounds. Anyone anywhere can walk up at the last moment and buy a ticket."

Ronan O'Gara - still the man? © Getty Images

David Kelly goes through the selection problems facing Ireland coach Declan Kidney ahead of his side's Six Nations meeting with England at Twickenham in The Irish Independent.

"When Rory Best yesterday referred to the "shock to the system" which rippled through the Irish squad in the aftermath of their first defeat in 15 months, he was probably only skating the surface of the trauma now affecting the Irish selectors ahead of today's team announcement.

"Already thieved of experienced players like Denis Leamy, Luke Fitzgerald, Jerry Flannery and Rob Kearney and hungry players such as Sean O'Brien and Donnacha Ryan, serious form issues now surround others, including Ronan O'Gara, Paul O'Connell, David Wallace, John Hayes and Tomas O'Leary.

"How Declan Kidney reacts to a variety of dilemmas will shine a revealing light on how the coach deals with the biggest test of his international career. Should he force his hand or maintain faith in his players after merely one, albeit headline-grabbing, setback? That the problems run from back to front indicate the extent of head-scratching that will have accompanied those dwindling candles burning long into the night at the squad's Killiney HQ."

Spiro Zavos, writing in The Sydney Morning Herald, believes that teams must adapt to the new Super 14 law interpretations quickly, or face a season in the doldrums.

"To understand what is going on we need a little theory. Many years ago I had a conversation with Danie Craven, a legendary Springboks halfback and coach.

"In the 1950s and 1960s Craven was Mr Rugby, the game's most influential administrator. He was in charge of writing the various changes to the laws. Craven told me that the laws were wrong. ''How do we know this?'' he said. ''Because, unlike the laws of soccer, they are too complicated and can't be written down on a single sheet of paper.''

"Craven, a double PhD, taught at Stellenbosch University (where the ELVs were devised and trialled). He told me he often experimented on law variations using students as guinea pigs. Craven learnt from this experimenting that if you changed one law, it would affect how others worked. He used the metaphor of pulling a thread from a jersey and the old garment ''unravelling''."

Chris Hewett is surprised at the inclusion on Mike Phillips on the Wales bench to face France, and blames Dwayne Peel's stay at Sale for the development in The Independent.

"Mike Phillips may or may not be the best scrum-half in European rugby – those subscribing to this view, who include Phillips himself, can bring as evidence three wonderful Test performances for the British and Irish Lions against the Springboks last summer – but this much is certain: the Wales coach Warren Gatland considers him a better bet than Dwayne Peel, his immediate predecessor with the Lions. A day after recalling Peel to his squad, Gatland named Phillips ahead of him for Friday night's Six Nations meeting with France in Cardiff.

"In a major reshuffle of the cards at No 9, the Cardiff Blues half-back Richie Rees will replace his club colleague Gareth Cooper in the starting line-up. With Cooper dropping out of the match-day squad altogether, there was a spare seat on the bench.

"Most observers assumed Peel, who plays his club rugby in England with Sale and is not in particularly good odour with Gatland because of it, would be selected there, on the grounds that while he had been injured, he had not been nearly as injured as Phillips. What was more, he had played for Wales during the autumn."

Robert Kitson previews a make-or-break Six Nations weekend for England and Ireland in The Guardian.

"The tipping point of the Six Nations championship is upon us. Ireland and England can still win the title but both can also feel the tug of gravity as they contemplate their prospects for Twickenham this weekend.

"Ahead of today's announcement of his England starting XV, Martin Johnson could certainly have done without the slight injury doubt surrounding his leading marksman Jonny Wilkinson as England seek to maintain their 100% start. Three from three, by whatever means, would represent the first Six Nations hat-trick of red rose wins since 2003. Squeeze past Scotland at Murrayfield and the seemingly impossible would suddenly be 80 minutes away. Never mind the quality, just imagine the scope of the dramatic narrative.

"The alternative, for the losers, will be a campaign marinated in regret. When Jason Robinson, Johnson's former team-mate, called at the weekend for Northampton's twinkle-toed full-back Ben Foden to be given a chance he was merely articulating the nationwide frustration at England's laboured effort against the Azzurri. The "F word", as Johnson calls it, is also prevalent among coaches and players. The managerial preference, however, is to use the foundations laid in Rome as a base for patient development."

Jonathan Sexton was in fine form for Leinster as they defeated the Scarlets © Getty Images

Jonathan Sexton's performance as Leinster defeated the Scarlets was a timely reminder to Ireland coach Declan Kidney according to The Irish Independent's Hugh Farrelly.

"On the night Lady Gaga was wowing the O2, the piped music across town at the RDS was suitably contemporary and upbeat, but 'London Calling' would have been the most appropriate tune given next weekend's Twickenham tilt.

"Leinster copper-fastened their top-four status in the Magners League table (with a game in hand) following Saturday night's rusty, if comprehensive, win over the Scarlets. But, while that fact will justifiably afford coach Michael Cheika a fair degree of satisfaction (tempered by the fractured leg suffered by Sean O'Brien), the imperatives of getting the Irish rugby team back on track against England next weekend meant the primary interest was in the individual auditions as a clutch of Leinstermen bid to turn blue to green.

"Chief among them was out-half Jonathan Sexton, whose man-of-the-match, 22-point display was a powerful statement ahead of tomorrow's Ireland team announcement."

David Walsh analyses Danny Care's role in the England squad in The Times.

"Delon Armitage stands apart from the others, momentarily on the outside.

"Nick Easter walks past and jumps into one of the parked Land Rovers, James Haskell has the keys for another, and Danny Care ambles towards a five-litre monster they call No 7. Further back, Steve Thompson watches the traffic and thinks he would rather be in hunting gear, a rifle on his shoulder, a forest in his sights.

"But this England squad get-together in west London is about young men bonding with high-powered vehicles. So Easter zips out of his parking bay, then Haskell and Armitage catches Care’s attention. “Danny, mate,” he says, “I’ve been out twice but each time as a passenger. Now they want me to go out again in the back seat.”

Richard Loe has some pointers for the Highlanders after an unsuccessful weekend of predictions on his part, in The New Zealand Herald.

"I am involved in a competition with some mates to pick the winners each week.

"Last week I forgot to submit my picks on time, which meant I was given the default mode - all the away teams. I got five out of six, which is infinitely better than how I was travelling this week. After four games in the second round, I had only the Chiefs right.

"I thought the Highlanders were going to roll the Blues but they have to learn to play for more than 40 minutes. The Highlanders looked good in the first half when their lineout was strong and they scored two well-executed tries. Even after the Blues had fought their way back, I still thought the Highlanders had their chances to win it."

Brian Moore commends Danny Cipriani's decision to head down under with the Melbourne Rebels in The Daily Telegraph.

"The truth is that there is fault all round and its roots were sown a long time ago. Cipriani's advisers have not helped him with their positioning of him as a fashion-celebrity marketing vehicle before he established his sporting credentials.

"The natural excitement of fame, exacerbated by a photogenic partner, has not been tempered by hard advice. Add to this Cipriani's lack of worldly experience and you have the ingredients for a Shakespearean tragedy.

"There are many readers who will have greeted the revelation that Cipriani sought counselling over his depressed state as merely confirmation of him as another weak-willed youth.They will dismiss Cipriani as someone who is unable to exhibit the necessary fortitude, a product of an indulgent society. And while doing so they will probably make some allusion to our troops in the Second World War or Afghanistan."

Former England captain Lawrence Dallaglio is now a familiar face on the sidelines © Getty Images

Former England captain Lawrence Dallaglio insists it is high time current skipper Steve Borthwick had a reality check. Read his thoughts in the Sunday Times.

"I got to know Steve Borthwick at the 2007 World Cup because neither of us was in Brian Ashton’s starting team and we found ourselves thrown together quite a bit. He is a good bloke, intelligent and a natural team player. But knowing Borthwick didn’t stop me being confused by his reaction to last weekend’s game. While I could accept England’s poor performance because that happens, I couldn’t accept the delusional reaction to it.

"In the post-game interview Borthwick said: “We played some fantastic stuff, created a lot of chances but ultimately we didn’t take them. But some of the rugby we played was outstanding . . . In some aspects, I thought we did some very good stuff. Delon Armitage, Mark Cueto and Ugo Monye in those wide channels made some fantastic breaks, Matt Mullen came on and did really well. I think there was a lot of positives.”

"I heard this and thought: “Steve, please, don’t insult our intelligence.” Borthwick’s summary bore no resemblance to the game I watched and I yearned for him to be more honest. This matters because rugby, when played correctly, is all about honesty. You don’t feign injury on the pitch and afterwards you don’t pretend you’ve performed when you haven’t."

The internet age has changed rugby's social scene for ever, writes Paul Rees in the Irish Independent.

"There were a few Golfs but not many buggies around the Wales squad's headquarters in the Vale of Glamorgan when they held their media session last week.

"The electric golf cart allegedly commandeered by the flanker Andy Powell hours after last weekend's victory over Scotland and driven to a nearby M4 service station was parked in a pound in Cardiff, a symbol of how Wales have stalled this season.

"Gatland's playing career ended as the lights were going out on amateurism, a time when players and supporters, not to forget reporters, mingled after matches. No matter how much beer loosened tongues and relaxed inhibitions, any indiscretions remained private. The internet era has changed that and Gatland this month asked a lawyer who specialises in defamation, privacy and reputation management to address the players on the perils of posting messages on social networking websites."

Front rowers who can scrummage well are set to command premium salaries, writes the New Zealand Herald's Gregor Paul.

"It's a new take on sink or swim - it's get rich or lose your contract. This is the brave new world of properly refereed scrums.

"With the pre-engagement phase now being effectively controlled, the world will soon discover who can scrummage and who can't. The technically deficient will be weeded out.

"Those who can handle the contest will become the best-paid players in world rugby. Props are now the make-or-break men of every side. Any team that doesn't have a couple of decent scrummaging props might as well kiss goodbye to their title dreams."

Writing in The Scotsman, Tom English offers an insight into his new book, The Grudge: Scotland vs. England, 1990.

"Scotland planned to walk out.

David Sole: "There's a gradual slope at the entrance to the pitch, so if you start jogging at the top you'll nearly be sprinting by the time you get to the bottom. You wanted to sprint. Everything in your body and the noise of the crowd was telling you to sprint. But we couldn't. We were walking.

"We emerged and a big roar went up and then a weird thing happened. It just subsided for a second or two. It was almost as if you could hear the thought process of more than 50,000 people. 'Hey, they're walking.' Then the roar came back and it sent a shiver through me."

Scotland lock Chris Gray: "I looked over at the English and they were going, 'Bloody Nora!'"

Moore: "No we weren't. People said we were quaking in our boots. Urban myth."

Carling: "I was talking to the guys, so we didn't see their famous walk. I heard the reaction to it, though. Jesus, did I hear it."

Ian McGeechan: "Myself and Jim missed it. We were walking under the stand – and the whole edifice shook. It was like a train passing overhead."

The Independent's Hugh Godwin grills Ugo Monye and former captain Martin Corry about an unconvincing England.

"A touch-and-go win over Wales and unconvincing victory in Italy have left England in second place in the Six Nations' Championship but besieged by unhappy critics and calls in some quarters for fly-half Jonny Wilkinson to be dropped. The England wing Ugo Monye and former captain Martin Corry answer 10 questions hanging over Martin Johnson's team as they prepare to meet Ireland at Twickenham on Saturday.

"Should Wilkinson go, Jonny go? "A settled side is the number one factor in England becoming successful," said Corry. "I'd go further than saying Jonny and Riki Flutey are the 10 and 12 for this year. Martin Johnson should say they and the bulk of the current side are going to be the core of the 2011 World Cup team. Chopping and changing is not going to work." Monye attended the same school as Wilkinson and stuck up for his boyhood hero. "His composure in vital moments is crucial and he kicked a drop goal against Italy at a perfect time. His intensity, his professionalism, his cool head on the pitch are exceptional. This England team really needs Jonny Wilkinson."

England fly-half Jonny WIlkinson came in for undue flak after the Six Nations match in Italy, but he has always been a cautious player according to Eddie Butler in The Observer.

"Last week Martin Johnson, the current manager, the former captain and the mightiest player ever to wear the shirt of England, went to the defence of Jonny Wilkinson, the No10 of England and the world's highest scorer of points. Johnno and Jonny: beefeater and crown jewel.

"Johnson was unhappy that because Wilkinson had missed a couple of kicks in Rome the critics were on his back. Well, on the matter of the two penalties and the conversion that went astray, they came almost as welcome relief, an imprecision on one front that might allow Wilkinson to prosper on another.

"But England barely blossomed anywhere against Italy and the sight of Wilkinson dropping further and further back to a position somewhere to the north of full-back hardly bolstered the view that they were prepared to go out and win this game, rather than not lose it."

Former Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan assesses the impact of Ireland's defeat to France ahead of the trip to Twickenham in The Irish Independent.

"It is very difficult to even begin to describe the feeling the Irish players would have woken up to last Sunday morning in Paris. The fatigue and tiredness would have been more draining, the knocks and bruises more painful. But most of all, a sick feeling in the pit of their stomachs, that will linger there until tomorrow's assembly for the England game.

"Root canal surgery, without the anaesthetic, would have been more appealing than beginning the long trek home to begin the autopsy on the game. With expectations being so high on the way to Paris the feeling of disappointment would have been all the more acute on the way back.

"This Irish team is now in a strange place. They had been undefeated in their previous 12 games and in the process bagged a Grand Slam, Triple Crown, wins over Argentina and South Africa, while rising to fourth in the IRB rankings. Losing is a relatively new experience for most of these players."

Writing in The Western Mail, Caroline Hitt asks whether Andy Powell's late night antics can be recovered in a third coming.

"As sporting scandals go, there is something almost poignantly childish about Powell’s escapade, right down to the discarded pair of Under Armour pants found in the back of the buggy.

"On the fall from grace front, it’s in the “Fredalo” category of drunk sportsman in charge of sedate means of transport or John Jeffrey drop-kicking the Calcutta Cup up the Royal Mile rather than Stan Collymore’s dubious activities in a dark car park. Powell’s prank doesn’t compare with John Terry’s dalliances, Ashley Cole’s “sexting” or Tiger Woods’ ever-lengthening list of birdies because it elicits a mix of exasperation and hilarity rather than disgust.

"The big man from Brecon is a big character. Too big in this case. Somewhere near Junction 33 Powell crossed the line from likeability to liability. The image of him chugging alongside the motorway is comic. But the consequences could have been tragic. Rugby still needs its court jesters, a role Powell fulfilled brilliantly on the 2009 Lions Tour. Yet is there is a more serious subtext to Powell’s clown persona? Coaches have commented on his lack of confidence and need for an arm around the shoulder."

David Hands meets the enigmatic French centre who has had a huge impact on the Six Nations so far, but still has to do his community service in The Times.

"A cold wind whips through the northeast Paris suburbs. The man in the white tracksuit top stands on a muddy, uneven playing surface in Pantin watching the Île-de-France under-26 squad going through their paces under poor floodlights. Mathieu Bastareaud is doing his time.

"This is not Bastareaud’s turf — at 21, he would rather be with his mates from Stade Français — but it is his city and this is the seventh of 18 community visits that he must make before June 30. This is the punishment awarded him, in lieu of a three-month suspension, by the Fédération Française de Rugby disciplinary committee in September for the episode during France’s tour to New Zealand last summer that ended with diplomatic exchanges between the governments of the two countries.

"To meet Bastareaud now is to meet a shy youngster but one determined to display his English, as determined as the powerful centre has been in taking the RBS Six Nations Championship by storm this month with two tries against Scotland and a significant part in the downfall of last year’s grand-slam winners, Ireland. Less than eight months ago, his face was plastered all over France’s television channels and newspapers and he was suicidal."

Cardiff Blues veteran Gareth Thomas made front page news last year when he revealed he was gay © Getty Images

Speaking to Brian Viner in The Independent, former Lions captain Gareth Thomas reflects on reactions he has received since announcing he is gay and explains why coming out would be much harder for a footballer.

"It is two months since Thomas came out. There had been occasional rumours, and even photographers staking out his house, but nobody ever turned the rumours into fact. Now that he has done so himself, he welcomes me cheerfully into his home in a village near Bridgend knowing that his sexuality is what we'll be talking about for the next hour or so. Oddly, I have been asked by a man called Emanuele, his friend and adviser – Thomas loathes the word "agent" – not to raise the reports that Thomas is on the verge of a move to rugby league. It's the first time in my interviewing career that a fellow's sexual orientation is wide open for discussion, while rugby league is firmly taboo.

He makes coffee and we sit down at a round breakfast table. The house, where he lived with Jemma, now the ex-wife he still adores, is not at all grand, but comfortable. There are rugby photos around the place, and I spot a copy of Barack Obama's book, Dreams of My Fathers. Has he read it? "No, I've just bought it." The "it" is pronounced the Bridgend way, without the T. "I've never been a big reader, but now I read a lot. I'm into books that challenge me, and..."

He starts to chuckle. "Obviously Barack Obama and myself are in no way comparable, but who'd have thought there would ever be a black president of America?" I complete the connection for him, and assure him that it is in no way fanciful: who, similarly, would ever have thought that a big, tough Lions and Wales ex-captain, thunderous wing, full-back and centre, would burst out of the closet? "Yeah, and what he must have gone through... I thought I could read it and in some fraction of a way, relate to it."

Given the the destabilising effects of their hammering in Paris, having England at Twickenham next up is not the worst scenario for Ireland and their coach Declan Kidney. Hugh Farrelly writes in the Irish Independent.

"Yes, if it had been a home game against Italy or Scotland, there would have been an instant opportunity for a confidence-restoration exercise, but, given how far this team has progressed over the last 15 months, taking on a bullish England team in front of their home supporters is probably the best way for the Grand Slam champions to get Paris out of their system.

"Win in Twickenham and there is the chance, in the final two home games against Wales and Scotland, to further this squad's development in preparation for the World Cup -- not to mention the significant challenges in New Zealand and Australia on the summer tour. However, defeating the English is never a straightforward matter."

So what next for the Waratahs? Former Wallabies international Matt Burke asks this very question in the Sydney Morning Herald.

"Last weekend was about the influence of Berrick Barnes and those around him. This week it is about the forwards taking charge. It's about being confrontational, combative and aggressive.

"Criticism is always very easy to dish out when a team snatches a win, as the Waratahs did last Saturday night in Brisbane. For many critics, it's as if the opposition lost the game rather than the victors winning it. But NSW stuck at it for 80 minutes and capitalised on the penalties the Reds gave them.

"I didn't think at any stage in the final stages that Phil Waugh looked like losing his composure. NSW's intensity lifted and, despite not having a lot of scoring opportunities for most of the game, the visitors saw chances open up in the last 10 minutes and were good enough to take them."

With so many games swinging on the showing of yellow cards teams must devise strategies for playing with, or against, 14 men. according to Shaun Edwards in The Guardian.

"Back in 2003 England beat the All Blacks in Wellington to register a first win in New Zealand for 30 years and did it with only 13 men at times. In the second half, with the All Blacks trying to claw their way back into the game, the Australian referee Stuart Dickinson lost patience and sent Neil Back and Lawrence Dallaglio to the sin bin. It looked like curtains for England, but somehow Martin Johnson and the other five remaining forwards didn't budge.

Sir Clive Woodward, ever the one to point out that it was attention to the smallest of details that turned matches, explained that it was a situation for which England had practised, while others suggested it was the point when England knew they could go on to win the World Cup. Certainly they were confident enough to beat the Wallabies in Melbourne the following week – the first win on Aussie soil – and from those two victories in June 2003 they went on to lift the Webb Ellis Cup in the autumn.

Come forward seven seasons to this year's Six Nations and there have already been three examples of games where similar yellow-card situations have been handled less cleverly."

Has the Reds' Quade Cooper got it? © Getty Images

Boring super rugby could be a thing of the past according to Spiro Zavos in the Sydney Morning Herald.

"Last season's rugby was dominated by kickathons, defensive play and collapsed scrums. As entertainment, some of the matches (but not all) were about as pleasant to experience as a root-canal procedure. Something had to be done. Lyndon Bray, SANZAR's manager of referees, worked out a three-pronged solution with the coaches.

"Instead of the defending sides having most of the rights to the tackled ball, the new interpretation goes back to the basic law, requiring the tackler to release his grasp on the attacker and for all defenders near the ball to roll away if they are impeding the ball coming back in the ruck.

"The scrum procedures are now slowed down and the protocol of ''crouch, touch, pause, engage'' must be followed rigorously. The offside laws applying to kicks and players positioning themselves in defence at rucks and mauls are to be strictly enforced.

"These changes have been spelt out here because it is clear that a number of the players either did not understand them or were confirming the Zavos theorem. In the Sharks-Chiefs match, for instance, John Smit was heard arguing with the New Zealand referee, Keith Brown, about the penalties his team were giving away. Smit seemed to be suggesting that if the tackler was on his feet, he was entitled to keep holding on to the tackled ball. Wrong. The sequence now - as the law has always stated - is tackle, release, grab if possible."

Hurricanes playmaker Piri Weepu is the ideal scrum-half to re-energise Test rugby under new rules, according to Chris Rattue in the New Zealand Herald.

"Picking the All Black No 10 is the easiest decision in New Zealand sport.

"Finding a halfback partner for Dan Carter is anything but mission accomplished for the All Black selectors.

"We are only a week into the Super 14 competition, so this topic may seem premature, but Piri Weepu's maestro touches for the Hurricanes against the Blues really caught the eye, and thus pulled the All Black halfback situation into view.

"Might this be a case of cometh the new rules, cometh the man?"

The Bulls' victory over the Cheetahs last weekend seemed to be everything you would want from a Super 14 game and seemed to be the perfect advertisement for the recent law directives, according to Brendan Nel on Supersport.

"With Super 14’s new law interpretations a week old, it was a telling conversation that took place last week with a leading international referee, who defended the new laws despite my initial hesitation about it.

“If teams adapt well to the new interpretations,” he enthused, “then the stage is set for big games – those 65-42 victories that we all like to watch - lots of tries, entertaining and where both sides can give themselves a chance on the scoreboard.”

"Little did I know that a few hours later we would have been treated to such a feast in Bloemfontein, as the Bulls adapted very well and in one of the most entertaining games of any Super 14 competition beat the Cheetahs 51-34."

After Jerry Flannery became the latest casualty of Ireland’s now abortive Grand Slam defence, opportunity knocks for a host of unheralded players over the coming weekend of league action, David Kelly writes in the Irish Independent.

"The Chinese celebrated their New Year last weekend -- this is the year of the Tiger, as it happens, and perhaps the eponymous Mr Woods just may have been absorbing a little Oriental philosophy before he emerges from all his controversy.

"Apparently, the Chinese deploy the same word for crisis and opportunity. Hence the maxim which declares that just as a mishandled opportunity becomes a crisis, so a well-managed crisis becomes an opportunity. Tiger's will surely come.

"Irish rugby's crisis is less rapt by such dramatic tension, but as the Six Nations campaign takes a breather this weekend, there are opportunities abounding to abate any hysterical talk of an emergency ahead of the Twickenham tie with England in just nine days' time.

"And it is clear there are numerous chances for players to make their presence felt in this season's championship and, perhaps, to lay down a marker for the summer tour and beyond, towards 2011 and the World Cup."

Ireland's Jerry Flannery can’t have too many complaints after receiving a six-week ban that will keep him out of Ireland’s remaining three matches, writes John O'Sullivan in the Irish Times.

"There is no doubt that the fact that the French wing was forced to hobble from the pitch less than 10 minutes later would have counted against the Irishman. Slow motion replays confirm that Palisson had control of the ball in his arms when Flannery lunged awkwardly with the boot. The Ireland hooker was guilty of clumsiness rather than malice but the manner in which he made contact was always going to invite further censure than the penalty awarded at the time.

"...Flannery had produced a brilliant performance in Paris – the Palisson folly notwithstanding – for the 61 minutes he was on the pitch before being replaced by Rory Best. The suspension though represents the latest setback in a season dogged by frustration."

England cannot afford to ditch any player with Danny Cipriani's sort of talent according to Brian Moore in The Daily Telegraph.

"The wrangling over whether he will re-sign for Wasps or go abroad is not endearing him to the hierarchy at High Wycombe but this is all part of the professional era; the club must know what is the bottom line and if they are that concerned a once-and-for-all offer is surely not beyond the experienced businessmen in charge.

"If negotiations are dragging out it is their fault for not being decisive, not his for wanting to keep open his options. In these days of money-based decisions any plea for loyalty is quaint, given that reciprocal loyalty is highly unlikely to be offered should Cipriani not continue to be a quality player.

"No, for all the awkwardness that Cipriani seems to engender, there must be something else that is creating this succession of difficulties. Those close to him have no criticisms to make of his commitment to training or playing, but with the praise for this comes qualification that is personal and often maddeningly non-specific — “of course you have to manage him carefully”, or “he is difficult to handle at times”."

England and Wasps fly-half Danny Cipriani has been told to decide today where his future lies, according to Mark Souster in The Times.

"London Wasps are increasingly frustrated at speculation over the fly half’s possible move to Australia and have made it clear they cannot wait indefinitely for Cipriani to say what he wants to do. “We have to know where we stand because we need to make plans for next season,” a source said.

"David Campese, the former Australia World Cup-winning wing, said last night that it would be a mistake for Cipriani to move Down Under.

"Cipriani is known to want to keep his options open for as long as possible to see if a firm offer is made by Melbourne Rebels or whether a club in France decide to make a bid. Wasps have put a new contract on the table but are offering scarcely better terms than the ones he is already on. The Rebels, the new Super 15 franchise, have had to put their recruitment plans on hold temporarily while they resolve funding and other issues with the Australian Rugby Union."

Is Jonny Wilkinson's time up? © Getty Images

Robert Kitson analyses England's win over Italy and joins the voices questioning Jonny Wilkinson's inclusion in The Guardian.

“Everything is relative. Thank goodness we can all sit around debating how awful England were, rather than await a chilling medical bulletin from a Cardiff hospital. Let us be eternally grateful that the Scotland wing Thom Evans did not, after all, suffer a more serious injury at the Millennium Stadium. Were he still lying motionless in bed with no feeling in his arms and legs, England's shortcomings in Rome would be less than irrelevant.

“Happily the medics say Evans should make a full recovery. Unhappily for Martin Johnson, the Six Nations Championship table may imply a blooming red rose but anyone who watched the 80-minute bore-athon in the Stadio Flaminio knows better. Subtract Welsh generosity and Italian mediocrity from the equation and England could easily still be searching for their first win.

“Maybe it would have done them good to lose to the Azzurri on Sunday, if only to inject more realism into the post-match platitudes. Maybe, behind closed doors this week, tough words will be spoken and even tougher decisions taken. As things stand, though, England risk the steepest of descents. Even if they do emerge from their weekend torpor to see off Ireland and Scotland, they face a total wipeout at the hands of a resurgent France in Paris unless there is a radical change of tactics. Should England finish second in the championship playing like zombies, it will confirm every southern hemisphere doubt about the tournament's overall quality.”

Hugh Farrelly has some key points for consideration in the wake of Ireland's defeat to France in The Irish Independent

“For a small sporting country, we're not slow to get the knives out. Saturday's 33-10 defeat has provoked an intense, knee-jerk reaction but while it's far from push-the-panic-button time, there are suddenly issue to address and new territory for Declan Kidney to traverse.

“It is not the defeat per se - the unbeaten run could not go on forever - it was the manner of it. Ireland were lined up and summarily executed, something that Kidney has not encountered in his professional career.

“While Kidney's men made a strong start and had scoring opportunities which could have altered the trend of the game, there were passages of play where France appeared to be operating in a different sphere.”

Chris Rattue believes that the new tackle laws will play into the hands of the Hurricanes' Piri Weepu in The New Zealand Herald.

"We are only a week into the Super 14 competition, so this topic may seem premature, but Piri Weepu's maestro touches for the Hurricanes against the Blues really caught the eye, and thus pulled the All Black halfback situation into view.

"Might this be a case of cometh the new rules, cometh the man? Just where Weepu - with 30-plus tests under the belt - fits into Graham Henry's plans is one of the more mysterious aspects about the current regime's selections.

"The selectors have three distinctive options - Weepu, Jimmy Cowan and Brendon Leonard, plus Andy Ellis, who should be the last cab off the top rank.At this point the grumpy Cowan, from Southland, would probably be rated number one. Cowan is combative, a strong cover defender who pulled off a couple of pivotal tackles in the black jersey last year, but he is a little laboured and not overly creative."

Rupert Guinness talks to Waratahs prop Benn Robinson about the positives of being the smaller man in a land of giants in The Sydney Morning Herald.

"It was on a lumpy cow paddock in the Black Sea city of Constanta, Romania, five years ago that Benn Robinson - then a budding 20-year-old prop who dreamt of one day playing for the Wallabies - realised his relatively diminutive size as a prop could be a strength rather than a weakness.

"It all began when, as a member of the NSW development tour to eastern Europe, Robinson and his teammates were preparing to play against ''Romania A''. As he ran onto the field, it suddenly struck him that each of the opposing front-rowers weighed up to 20 kilograms more than he did.

''I looked over before the game and the whole front row was 120 to 130 kilos each,'' Robinson recalled. ''I was with Aaron Broughton-Rouse. I said to him: 'Mate, this is going to be a tough night at the office'. But we ended up getting a pushover try. It wasn't that tough."

Battered and Bruised, Ireland need to 'get back on the horse' © Getty Images

Tony Ward believes that the halfback duo of Eoin Reddan and Jonathan Sexton are banging on the door of Ireland boss Decland Kidney in The Irish Independent.

"If there was one of Eddie O'Sullivan's frequently quoted expressions I used to loathe, it was the one following defeat - which, to be fair, wasn't that often - about getting back up on the horse.

"The head coach would say it in flash interviews post-match. And then his players and back-up staff would repeat it ad nauseam.Well, if the performance in Paris took us back to dim times past, then I must take a leaf out of O'Sullivan's book and state that it is, indeed, time to get back on the horse.

"There is no other option. A good team did not become bad on the back of one under-par performance, but, nonetheless, a winning team has had its confidence severely dented by Saturday's French fall."

Peter Bills salutes a French performance of pace, power and invention against Ireland in The Independent.

"Be afraid, be very afraid. French rugby is stirring and a giant awakes. It was all very well for France's reinvigorated rugby team to hammer and humiliate the reigning Grand Slam champions Ireland, in Paris on Saturday. But to receive laudatory comments from that notoriously dissatisfied body of opinion known as the French media was another thing altogether.

"Thus, we can imagine that French coach Marc Lièvremont (below) probably needed to sit down in a darkened room once he had digested the words of France's great newspapers following his team's 33-10 victory at Stade de France.

"Combat Kings" L'Equipe hailed them. The magisterial Le Monde opined that: "France replied in masterly fashion to the question of what level they are at." And the rugby bible, Midi Olympique, added: "It was their aggression and breakdown work which were the most impressive aspects of the French performance."

Mick Cleary, writing in The Daily Telegraph, has little praise for England or Italy following their Six Nations meeting in Rome.

"They made five line breaks, all prompted from the rear, and managed to trouble what has been an unyielding Italy defence. 'But why didn't they do that more often?' was the plaintive question on the lips of many at Fiumicino airport yesterday. If England are to prosper, and the game itself is to have casual spectators reaching for the replay, rather than the off, button, then they have to be bold. Mark Cueto, Delon Armitage, Mathew Tait and Riki Flutey all had their moments. But moments they turned out to be: the pulse rate soared only to return quickly to idle.

"Compare that to events at the Millennium Stadium, where there was adventure in the air and a belief that ball-in-hand was not the sign of a death wish. It is possible to retain possession through phases. It is not the mark of a madman to run with the ball. Trust your skills. Back your judgment. Have a crack.

"Admittedly Italy are not easy to play against. They are betraying the sport with their wilful disregard for doing anything but hoofing the ball to the skies. There are plans to increase capacity at the Stadio Flaminio to 44,000, making room for 10,000 more spectators. Masochists this way please. Yet the team spoke yesterday of their pride in getting so close to England. Well, they may be worthy, but they are dull."

Eddie Butler believes that England skipper Steve Borthwick should pipe down following games in The Guardian.

"I can't say I know Sir John Chilcot well enough to know whether he likes his rugby union or not, but I can see him of a Sunday afternoon putting his aside his mountains of testimony from the Iraq Inquiry and taking in a bit of Italy-England by way of light relief. Light, of course, being a relative term.

"There he is, possibly drifting off in the second half, only to be jerked out of his power nap by the sound of Steve Borthwick's post-match interview. Such denial, such a limpet. "Sounds familiar," says Sir John with a sigh, returning to his reams.

"Borthwick is playing well, but he has reached the state as a captain where somebody should leave a revolver on his lap-top of lineout analysis. Given the apparent thickness of his skin, it would take an entire box of slugs to draw blood."

Jermoe Kaino surges forward for the Blues © Getty Images

Auckland is a sporting centre in decline, according to Chris Rattue in The New Zealand Herald.

"The first week of the new rugby season already looks like all of those often depressingly hopeless years gone by for the Blues. Their faltering effort against the Hurricanes at Albany on Friday night reinforced the strong suspicion they will be also-rans again this year.

"Auckland is a city of sporting decay. The smell of failure hangs around Auckland sport, in contrast to elsewhere. The Blues' second-half capitulation against the Hurricanes, who were beautifully marshalled by Piri Weepu, was yet another soul-destroying moment in their increasingly beleaguered history.

"Forget the PR BS because flaky met shaky when the Blues secured Cantabrian Stephen Brett.Why the biggest city in a supposedly rugby-mad nation needs to go cap in hand to find players in pivotal positions tells a story in itself, that of an inability to identify and/or lure young players and fit them into long-term schemes."

Tom English believes that Scotland can come back brighter following their heartbreaking defeat to Wales in The Scotsman.

"Byrne had chipped over Godman, who was the last man in Scotland's defence. He was racing on to a loose ball with a yard or two advantage over his nearest pursuers. Would he want to take a dive in those circumstances when he would have been convinced that a match-winning score was likely?

"It's a moot point, frankly. What is clear, though, is that Scotland will have to dig deep to recover from this. Perhaps every team that was ever worth a damn had to go through a day like Saturday in order to develop the mental toughness to survive. Maybe that's part of the process. You experience bitter and self-inflicted loss – Chris Cusiter and Mike Blair, class acts both, will be going through torture right now – and you grow from it. It was that prize-fighter and sage, Floyd Patterson, who said that it's in defeat that a man reveals himself. Well, if that's true, the events of the next few weeks are going to be gripping. How Scotland deal with what happened to them in Wales is going to define their championship, their year, and perhaps even the Robinson era.

"The errors at the end are all the harder to take because of the excellence of earlier. Before the deluge of Welsh points, we saw things that ought to get us excited. At last, we had a vision of a new Scotland, a Scotland that dictated the play, that was clever and clinical in possession and organised and defiant without the ball. The huff and puff of multiple, and fruitless, phases that we saw too often in the recent past, was gone and instead there came a directness and an intelligence that had the Welsh rocking for more than 70 minutes. Warren Gatland said the Scots didn't create much. With respect to the Kiwi, he was talking garbage."

Richard Williams joins the Jonny Wilkinson debate following England's victory over Italy in The Guardian.

"Six out of six against Wales a fortnight ago, three out of six against Italy today. The goal-kicking statistics from a narrow victory over Italy will not please the relentless perfectionist inside Jonny Wilkinson. Far more worrying for England, however, is his contribution in open play.

"Like it or not, and Martin Johnson probably does not, an outside-half defines the way his attack functions. Today Wilkinson conformed to the stereotype by sitting deep and making a great deal of use of his boot, a playmaker only in the most negative sense.

"The uninspiring result had the Roman crowd greeting England's win with jeers. Better had been expected from a side with their experience and reputation. Instead Nick Mallett's limited but wholehearted players left the field as the moral victors, having delighted the home fans in the 33,000 crowd with their efforts to play a brand of rugby that might be recognised as entertainment."

Brian Moore is getting tired of England's brand of management speak in The Daily Telegraph.

"After a bright and purposeful start England gradually became drawn into a static game which kept Italy in touch and had it not been for indiscipline the Italians could well have manufactured a win. If we are to have any more transparent management-speak rubbish post-match then we should do away with the interviews and press conferences altogether because they only produce incredulity, if not downright hostility from the watching public.

"Yes, a win is a win and England remain on course for the unlikeliest of Grand Slams, but, with Ireland at home and France and Scotland away, yesterday's game should have been the one in which England showed the latent ability to cut teams open that we have been assured repeatedly exists – if the conditions are right.

"Irrespective of whether this is factually correct, the claims will never come to fruition without players looking for opportunities and, when in possession, manufacturing them when necessary. Riki Flutey's two incisive runs came from the few times England utilised strike moves or ran from mis-kicked ball."

Simon Barnes, whisper it, questions the continued inclusion of Jonny Wilkinson as England's fly-half in The Times.

"There was a time during this match — really quite a long time — in which it was possible to think the unthinkable. England would be beaten by Italy and Jonny Wilkinson would be to blame. Drop Wilkinson! Is it possible to type these words without causing a malfunction of the laptop or stopping the stars in their courses?

"England made almost absurdly heavy weather of this closely fought match. Near the end they were fending off an enthralling Italian attack with a safety margin of only two points. The whiff of upset was in the air, and so was the triumphal march from Aïda. The shag-haired, bearded, big-bodied Italy forwards were inspiring the crowd and charging forward with a sudden belief that the eternal underdog of the Six Nations Championship was about to bite the snootiest dog of all.

"England finally outlasted Italy to win 17-12. They are unbeaten in the championship, just like France, except not really all that much like France. Wilkinson’s contribution was a nightmare of uncertainty in a team who are plagued with the stuff. Jonny uncertain! You’ll be telling me next that he’s got the yips."

Candid camera: Adam Freier © Getty Images

Waratahs hooker Adam Freier offers a guided tour of the club's new training facilities in The Sydney Morning Herald.

"Those who have ventured to a Waratahs home game in the past two years might have seen NSW Rugby's relatively new headquarters: the IBM Centre. This big building with no opening windows and massive glass doors is NSW Rugby's administrative hub, but it is also home to the Waratahs training centre, with a world-class gymnasium and players' common area.

"You could quiet easily head in for a training session and not come back out to reality for days. In many ways, it's rugby's version of the Big Brother show.

"They say when you retire from rugby you won't miss playing the game itself, you will miss your teammates and the fun times had, usually at the expense of others. This is why we love coming to ''work'' and we are so very fortunate to do what we all do for a living."

Eddie Butler evaluates a worrying trend as another trip causes strife in the Six Nations, in The Observer.

"It's strange how one trip has led to another. Alun Wyn Jones started the trend at Twickenham when he almost daintily felled Dylan Hartley. That led to howls of indignation against a sin almost as bad as eye-gouging, but the outrage did not deter Jerry Flannery from taking the crime to a new level, his version of a trip escalating to a hack at the legs of Alexis Palisson.

"Amazingly, Ireland's hooker was merely reprimanded for the offence. He was fortunate not to be shown a straight red, with yellow bypassed. It was not a pretty sight. It came at a time when Ireland had almost settled into their task. They were picking off the French lineout and were working their way through the difficult ten-minute period when Cian Healy was in the bin for taking out Morgan Parra before the scrum-half received the ball.

"That was a yellow-card offence if ever there was one, a professional, technical foul leading to the perpetrator cooling off on the sidelines. With the crime came three points on the board, but apart from the double inconvenience, Ireland had reason to be pleased with their management of the opening quarter."

John O'Brien reviews Ireland's Paris slump in The Irish Independent.

"So you claim a coveted Grand Slam. You go 15 months unvanquished against the best sides in the world, hold your own when the big guns from the southern hemisphere roll into town and still you find there is more do to. Another peak to scale. Brave new worlds to conquer. Yesterday brought Ireland to the sub-zero temperatures of a Parisian springtime and the cruel hand of history can never have felt colder.

"Ireland have felt more stinging defeats in this city than anywhere else and the first instinct was to believe this was up there with the worst of them. Occasionally during the game the camera would flash to Marc Lievremont and the French coach's lips would betray the faintest impression of a smirk. No elation or sense of triumph, though. Just satisfaction at a job neatly done, nothing more than they expected of themselves.

"It harked back to a past we thought was long since buried. In his engaging newspaper column yesterday morning, former Munster and Ireland winger John Kelly spoke about France's 39-point rout in this stadium in 2002. At dinner that night it struck Kelly that the mood among the French players was eerily subdued. They had won a Grand Slam but didn't seem to regard it as any great shakes. Ireland had beaten them in Paris twice in 50 years. It felt like little more than routine business."

Ieuan Evans salutes a game of rare drama following Wales' victory over Scotland in The Sunday Telegraph.

"The confidence returned in abundance and though we must not forget that Scotland were down to 13 men for those final few moments, I believe victory in this game could be the turning point for Gatland and his side. Well, it will be if we start picking players in form and rewarding those who have shown their mettle for their regions in the first half of the season.

"Still, having said all of that, how many times do we have to put up with the rubbish we witnessed in the first half.

"Time after time, we turned over ball and gifted Scotland an opportunity to lay their own platform on a day when a first win in Cardiff for eight years was well within their capability.
Why is it, though? Why have our Lions of last summer become so careless and inaccurate. Why do not we force the issue? Why do we not show a little greater patience once positions of strength have been established?"

Stuart Barnes believes that Wales' problems lie with Gareth Cooper and Ryan Jones in The Sunday Times.

"This was a match of magical moments. Shane Williams shimmied here and there in the last 10 minutes like a devilish Puck, creating a try for Lee Byrne to give Wales hope before darting over in the final play of the game to deliver heavenly bread to a stadium watching events turn upside down in a state between shock and delirium.

"This was a triumph for individual style over the structure and substance of a Scotland team left as devastated as the crowd was delirious. Where Wales played a game full of frills and thrills, Scotland approached it with intelligence and industry until injuries and yellow cards undid them.

"This compelling game proved the launch pad for this season’s Six Nations. Whether it is the platform from which Wales can rebuild their fortunes is something else. When the dust settles and the hangovers lift, Welsh rugby will not only wonder how they won this match but where they go from here."

Writing in The Independent former England boss Brian Ashton stresses the importance of the individual in the modern game.

"There is no 'I' in 'teams'." Most of us who have been involved in coaching or management for any length of time are familiar with this well-worn phrase, which, given the frequency with which it is heard, might more accurately be called a mantra.

"Like many snippets of home-spun sporting philosophy, it attempts to capture the essence of a basic truth: in this case, that the significance of the individual in a team game is as nothing compared to the importance of the collective. And like many of these one-liners, it misses the point.

"Just ask Warren Gatland about the influence of individuals, their thought processes and their decision-making. I'd be very interested to know the Wales coach's private view on Alun Wyn Jones and his visit to the sin bin during last week's Six Nations scrap with England (although I can probably work it out for myself)."

Robert Kitson of The Guardian talks to England scrum-half Danny Care about keeping a lid on expectations.

"If one player sums up English rugby just now it is Danny Care. The talent is there and so is the enthusiasm, as evidenced by his celebratory swallow-dive for a try against Wales last week. The only missing ingredient is consistency at the highest level. Get over that hump and a developing England squad really will be ready to soar.

"For the time being, the team management know they are dealing with a work in progress. On the one hand, the 23-year-old Harlequins scrum-half is deemed sufficiently grown up to pull the tactical strings for his country alongside Jonny Wilkinson.

"On the other, this is a young man whose mother still does his washing, most recently the special-edition centenary shirt he wore at Twickenham last Saturday."

Writing in the Irish Independent, former England star Will Greenwood muses that Brian O'Driscoll's legacy as a rugby legend will only be complete when he leads Ireland to a win over a southern hemisphere superpower.

"Some men define their country and its style of rugby. Martin Johnson has his brand of unapologetic English obstinacy. For French flair how about Phillipe Sella or Serge Blanco. Wales had Jonathan Davies and Scotland Finlay Calder.

"In the southern hemisphere, say Sean Fitzpatrick, Ruben Kruger and Tim Horan and you know exactly what you will get. But for Ireland, it was always a little harder. Don't get me wrong, they had some great players, just not one of whom you could say conclusively “that's Irish rugby.”

"Men such as Keith Wood had that hard edge when wearing the Lions jersey, an intense presence that never let up. In the backs, the great Brendan Mullin showed the lovely flat-out balance that will stand any test of time. But no one combined it all to showcase the full-on, ferocious beauty that Irish rugby can achieve.

"Well, no one until Brian O'Driscoll last year. After a decade of trying, he finally brought home the silverware, and with it he came as close as anyone to becoming the quintessential Irish player. "

Australian legend Matt Burke writes in the Sydney Morning Herald how star recruit Berrick Barnes will be the key to unlock the NSW Waratahs' attacking potential by bringing their other weapons into play this Super 14 season.

"The key to the playmaking role is to dominate from both a skilful and a tactical side. It's about making the right decision at the right time and limiting mistakes and indecision.

While this is expected of most players, something that is not spoken about a great deal is the ability to underplay your role and become a distributor. A role that is just as important as dominating the game.

On Saturday, look for Barnes's passing game - especially the short balls to those around the contact zone - and his ability to back up and get a second touch. Watch Benn Robinson, Wycliff Palu and Phil Waugh as the options on the pass. Watch as these guys create indecision in the defensive line. Watch for the Queensland centres to be put under pressure. Do I stay or do I slide?"

England skipper Steve Borthwick rallies the troops ahead of their clash with Wales at Twickenham © Getty Images

It has been an unusual week in English rugby because people have been nice about Steve Borthwick. John Westerby writes in The Times.

"The understated captain of an unloved team, he has been subjected to plenty of criticism in recent months. Partly this has been due to his undemonstrative style of leadership — “I don’t mean to sound boring,” he said last week — but it is also because there were serious doubts over whether he should keep his place in the England side.

"Providing he recovers from a stomach bug, there will be no such qualms for the game against Italy in Rome on Sunday, after his outstanding performance at Twickenham last Saturday, when he was seen turning Wales ball over in the ruck and rising majestically to make a mess of their lineout."

Writing in the Irish Independent, Hugh Farrelly believes the Irish squad could do a lot worse than take some time out with team manager Paul McNaughton ahead of their clash with France - a fixture where Ireland have tasted victory just once in 38 years.

"McNaughton is a low-key, quietly efficient and significant cog in this Irish wheel -- an excellent sounding board for coach Declan Kidney with whom he enjoys a close personal and working relationship. But, while Kidney's playing experience does not stretch beyond Munster club rugby, McNaughton has access to a memory bank that includes 15 caps between 1978 and 1981 -- and two defeats in Paris, both by a solitary point.

"The first was a 10-9 reverse in '78, three Tony Ward penalties not enough to overcome Jerome Gallion's try and two kicks by Jean-Michel Aguirre while two years later it was 19-18 to the French, in spite of 14 points from Ollie Campbell and a Freddie McLennan try.

"Different era, different game . . . no arguments there, but the same psychological tests and same result as experienced by many of tomorrow's squad over the past 10 years which means when McNaughton speaks about Ireland's lack of success in the French capital, he deserves to be heard."

Scotland prop and devout Christian Euan Murray has questioned why Six Nations games are played on Sundays. He talks to Alasdair Reid in the Daily Telegraph.

"It was just another Sunday for Euan Murray. Church in the morning, an afternoon with the family, then back to church for the evening service. No different to how thousands of other devout Christians might have spent their day. No different, that is, if you overlook the fact that thousands of devout Scottish rugby supporters would rather he had spent his day with them.

"While Murray missed Scotland's opening match of the Six Nations championship against France on the basis that playing on a Sunday would go against his religious principles, the packed stands of Murrayfield witnessed a performance in which the home side's set-piece difficulties contributed heavily to their 18-9 loss to the French.

"Now, though, Murray is back in the side, ready to pit his particularly forceful brand of muscular Christianity against the Welsh pack in the Millennium Stadium tomorrow. His broad shoulders carry the weight of a nation's expectations – or at least the hope that Scotland can win in Cardiff for the first time since 2002."

Scotland's rampaging prop Euan Murray returns to the fray this weekend with a fearsome message for Gatland's Wales. Chris Hewett writes in The Independent.

"He is of fundamental importance to the Scots, especially now their strongest scrummaging lock, Nathan Hines, is injured. The Welsh will start once again without Gethin Jenkins and Matthew Rees, though Jenkins is fit enough to sit on the bench, and there is every likelihood of him going eyeball to eyeball with Murray at some point during the contest.

"Was there not just a small part of Murray that struggled to reconcile born-again belief with the various forms of rugby bastardy that generally form a part of the tight-head's modus operandi? "I don't go out and hit people with hatred," he said, reassuringly. "That would be wrong. But I do go out and try to smash people as hard as I can, all over the field." It was an honest answer. Quite what those attending this week's General Synod would make of it is anyone's guess."

Once second-row forwards were called 'powerhouses'. Now even the backs are the size of nuclear reactors according to Harry Pearon in The Guardian.

"Nothing in sport, not even Tiger Woods's ego, has expanded as rapidly in volume over the past two decades as the average rugby player. Once there was room on the field of play for the svelte and the tubby, but nowadays it is filled with towering, muscular beasts whose heads disappear directly into their shoulders without the intervention of anything so namby-pamby as a neck. On stumbling across a Six Nations match anyone unfamiliar with rugby union would conclude that they were watching a Stonehenge lookalike contest. The late Bill McClaren routinely described large second-row forwards as "powerhouses". Nowadays even the backs are the size of nuclear reactors.

"Where did Mathew Tait get them thighs from?" a bloke said to me on Saturday night. He sounded like somebody asking about a stylish jacket that had caught his eye. But then, the idea that somewhere in Twickenham there is a big room with racks of giant pectorals, biceps, abs and quads and a group of skilled technicians busily bolting them on to the squad like ground crews arming an F1-11 hardly seems beyond the realms of possibility. By the time a player has been in the England squad for a couple of months he's more or less bound to look like he's been inflated with a foot pump. The day of the first armour-plated prop with integral turbo-booster is surely not far away."

Writing in the New Zealand Herald, Andrew Slack fears for the worst when the Super Rugby competition is expanded to include a Melbourne-based franchise next year.

"Let's overlook Supers 6 and 10 for the time being, and concentrate on 12 and 14.

"Over the 14 years those two tournaments have been in existence, Australia's provincial teams have hardly created major waves. The Brumbies have been far and away the most successful - indeed the only successful ones if you count holding up the trophy at the end of the show as the one meaningful yardstick.

"Only twice have two Australian teams made the semifinals in the same season and the most recent of those was eight years ago - a veritable generation in rugby terms. So, emboldened by such unflattering statistical momentum, we've decided to catapult another Australian team into the 2011 Super 15. "Premature" is the word that comes to mind."

Ireland's Brian O'Driscoll is chaired from the field after his hat-trick inspired an historic victory over France in 2000 © Getty Images

Keith Earls is hoping to draw on Ireland's historic victory over France 10 years ago when Ireland return to Paris this weekend. David Kelly writes in the Irish Independent.

"It is March 20, 2000. A wide-eyed schoolkid is sitting towards the back of his class. He can hear an echo from a few feet away as a geography teacher describes how best to distinguish the Barrow, the Nore and the Suir on a map of Ireland.

"But the kid is dreamily doodling. A green giant is looming large from a blank page where the topography of Munster is supposed to be. It is Brian O'Driscoll. Surrounding him are three smaller figures in blue. They are crying. They are French.

"This is Keith Earls. Aged 11 years and five months. Hoping to become a daydream believer. Ten years on, he will tread the same turf as his boyhood hero."

In the rush for control, discipline, organisation and structure, the French have jettisoned the great quality that always set them apart from more plodding rivals; namely, unpredictability, according to Peter Bills in the Irish Independent.

"In 1998, I watched mesmerised as a French team cut Wales to shreds in a scintillating 51-0 win at Wembley. It was rugby to make the gods dance in delight and it warmed your soul, like a hot toddy on a cold winter's night.

"Yet within a mere handful of years, the French had sacrificed this lethal philosophy forged on an attacking mindset for a dull, altogether more predictable approach.

"Of course, it is necessary in the modern game to add a healthy touch of pragmatism to your philosophy. Rugby defences no longer leak like sieves, are no longer as disorganised as a kids' play-group at break time. Yet even so, it seems to me curious that the French should have so willingly forsaken their roots, the great tradition that was their hallmark."

Brian O'Driscoll's hat-trick in Paris 10 years ago kick started a golden era for Ireland, Brendan Gallagher looks back in the Daily Telegraph.

"On a bright Sunday afternoon in March Ireland, without a victory in Paris in 28 years, conjured rugby from the gods. Brian O'Driscoll scored three tries in 80 minutes, which equalled Ireland's total in Paris for the previous 20 years, and David Humphreys, who had missed a kick to win the corresponding game at Lansdowne Road the previous year, nervelessly smacked over the winning penalty three minutes from time.

"Paris in Spring, sizzling pace, great hands and everything done at speed with panache. Everything you would expect in fact, except it was all coming from Ireland. It was a win that defied sober analysis, not that anybody was contemplating sobriety for a while."

Wales' Jonathan Thomas was last night forced to apologise after posting a homophobic comment on the social networking website Twitter, just two months after his Wales team-mate Gareth Thomas became the first professional rugby player in Britain to reveal that he was gay. Chris Green and James Corrigan report in The Independent.

"Lock forward Jonathan Thomas, 27, who has 51 caps for Wales and is set to play in the second row against Scotland in the Six Nations in Cardiff on Saturday, wrote the offensive remarks during an exchange on Twitter yesterday morning with Ian Evans, one of his team-mates at the Welsh club Ospreys.

"Evans wrote: "Legs and ass are in bits, can't move." Thomas posted in reply: "U gotta stop hanging round with Nigel Owens!" [a top Welsh referee who came out in 2007]. Evans then made an apology of sorts on behalf of Thomas: "For those ppl [people] who got the wrong end of the stick... it was from our savage training day yesterday, sorry about my friend fellow ppl."

Martin Johnson's side must be patient yet ready to pounce when opportunities arrive against the Italians, as they surely will, according to Pual Rees in The Guardian.

"If past matches in Rome offer a guide, England will have opportunities to counterattack on Sunday. The final try against Wales was worthy of deciding a match: Toby Flood had only one thing on his mind when he received the ball from Armitage. Given the pressure England had come under after the autumn, it would have been tempting for him to hoof the ball towards the Wales line but he saw what was on and went for it.

A characteristic of New Zealand over the years has been their predilection for the counterattack. They kick the ball as much as anyone, but they are not shy, apart from last year when the breakdown directive had an inhibiting effect on them, to attack a disorganised defence.

When England announced their team to face Wales, the reaction was largely favourable because the back division brimmed with attacking intent. If Wales came to Twickenham loaded with idealism, it was England's pragmatism that prevailed: Mathew Tait touched the ball only seven times, but he played a part in the three tries."

Dan Carter and Richie McCaw will be re-united in Crusaders colours this season © Getty Images

The Crusaders will win the final Super 14 - which opens on Friday - closing out another chapter for this rickety competition in the style their fans are accustomed to, according to Chris Rattue in the New Zealand Herald.

"The old firm has been reunited - Richie McCaw and Dan Carter are the finest double act in New Zealand sport since Mark Todd and Charisma.

"Having predicted last year that the Crusaders would not retain the title without Carter and under new coach Todd Blackadder - or make that without the old coach Robbie Deans - it was a shock to see how close they came. Their top-four finish showed just how resilient they are.

"The Bulls, I figured, were the 2009 favourites, yet despite winning, and winning well in the final against the flatter-to-deceiving Chiefs, the mob from Pretoria were not as convincing as they might have been through the season. The Bulls would need to lift their game to beat the Carter-driven Crusaders."

Every team contesting this year's Super 14 knows one thing going into Friday’s opening round of the competition – it is adapt or die. Brendan Nel writes for SuperSport.

"From what we’ve witnessed pre-season, we’re in for a massive amount of penalties in the first few weeks – where referees traditionally decide to enforce the laws to the letter, before relaxing as the tournament goes on.

"Now the tackler has no rights – there has to be “daylight” between the tackled player and the ball, meaning that the fetcher is likely to be a lost art in rugby, and the ball should flow a lot quicker out to the backs.

"Or should it? How long will it be before teams realise that the ruck is just a setup point for the next attack, and commit less players to it, ensuring the defensive lines can get spread out quicker and try and cover the gaps that will come?"

Ireland fly-half Ronan O'Gara is relishing this weekend's trip to Paris to tackle France. John O'Sullivan writes in the Irish Times.

"It's questionable just how cathartic it can be on a personal level to offer the public a glimpse into a private process. Most athletes wouldn’t risk opening a passageway that might allow others to judge them. Ronan O’Gara though rarely subscribes to convention and that’s precisely what makes him such an engaging interviewee.

"He doesn’t hide behind generalisations. Invited to bare his feelings, he responds with typical candour. The 32-year-old, who’ll occupy the pivotal outhalf position in Paris on Saturday, isn’t afraid to deal in the specifics of disappointment and how they impacted on him as a person and a player."

As the NRL gathers on the Gold Coast to show off its glittering stable of indigenous stars, a leading indigenous rugby figure says a ''very white'' union has failed to embrace and cultivate Aboriginal talent. Phil Lutton writes in the Sydney Morning Herald

"Just three of the 118 players on Australian Super 14 rosters are of indigenous heritage. The NRL boasts 11 per cent of its ranks - including some of its biggest stars - as being aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders.

"Tom Evans, the chief executive of the ARU-affiliated Lloyd McDermott Rugby Development Team, says a refusal to broaden the recruitment net outside of private schools means the code has little chance of unearthing future indigenous champions. The former Randwick player and coach also says the huge influence of Polynesian players in the code isn't being reflected in the make-up of the ARU."

Andy Robinson's desire to uncover a new attacking game remains on track despite a switch back to Dan Parks at stand-off, according to Scotland's head coach. David Ferguson writes in The Scotsman.

"Parks was so far out of Robinson's plans in August that he failed to make his first 44-man training squad, but his improvement this season with Glasgow in tandem with the loss of form experienced by Phil Godman, and a distinct lack of options in the position, has brought the stand-off back into the XV this week for a 48th cap around 16 months after he last started a Test match.

"...Robinson insisted, however, that bringing Parks back – his last Test match was in November, 2008, and last start in Argentina five months earlier – should not equate to a serious shift in style, but improve the Scots' ability to play more rugby in the opponents' half of the field. Indeed, there were whispers that Robinson and his assistant coaches Gregor Townsend and Graham Steadman were considering Parks for this game irrespective of what happened at Murrayfield."

Scotland trudge from the field against France © Getty Images

Stauart Bathgate talks to Scotland legend Tony Stanger about the current dearth of attacking quality in The Scotsman.

“There is no easy solution to the try drought which Scotland are experiencing, according to the country's joint leading all-time scorer of touchdowns, Tony Stanger, who along with Ian Smith tops the list with 24, believes that even if Andy Robinson's team score several tries in Wales on Saturday the problem will not have gone away.

“Now Talent Manager with the Sportscotland Institute of Sport, Stanger has an optimistic outlook, and is convinced that certain members of the Scottish team, who have now failed to score a try in three successive home Tests, do have the talent to make a difference. He believes, however, that the difference between merely creating chances and finishing them off is an extremely difficult gap to bridge.

"We can't ignore the improvements in physicality and in defence that have been made since rugby went professional," said Stanger, whose try in the 1990 Grand Slam game against England is the most celebrated individual score in the history of Scottish rugby. "It's chalk and cheese compared to my day. Organising a group of players to defend, or to work in the gym, is easier than trying to do the right thing under pressure. "We've got players who can make line breaks, like Johnnie Beattie and Sean Lamont did on Sunday. But if you don't score from the break, how do you organise from there? We have got creative players – the question is what happens next."

Mick Cleary previews a vital weekend for the England management as their squad prepare to take on Italy at the Stadio Flaminio in The Daily Telegraph.

"On such small margins might Martin Johnson be musing as his England squad shake off their post-victory celebrations to get themselves in the right frame of mind to protect their unblemished record over the Azzurri.

"Johnson's job was never really in jeopardy. Only a calamitous run of results, on the scale of a wipeout in the tournament, could have triggered such a turn of events. There has never been any desire at Twickenham for regime change, no whispers of discontent the like of which precipitated the demise of Ashton and Andy Robinson before him.

"Yet Johnson's reputation as a manager of substance has yet to be forged. Concerns persist and questions are raised. Johnson himself accepts that state of affairs. There is little doubt, though, that Saturday's win was a significant step. Anxiety has been quelled, time has been bought. England cannot afford to slip up at the Stadio Flaminio, and certainly need more vibrancy and polish."

Richard Williams evaluates the link in rugby and other sports between player power and success in The Guardian.

"Every now and then we need to be reminded that sport is about the people who play it, not those who design the way it is played. This may not be the most appropriate thought in the immediate aftermath of the Super Bowl, the pinnacle of a sport that introduced us to coaches with earpieces absorbing information from spotters seated high up in the stands, but it was reassuring to hear that a degree of player power was apparently exercised in the run-up to England's victory over Wales at Twickenham on Saturday.

"It may have been not much more than a healthy and perfectly natural exchange of opinions, slightly exaggerated in the retelling. But it was interesting that, in the days leading up to the match, several England players put their heads above the parapet to observe that something had to change about the way Martin Johnson's team were performing. And although the team's aura of stolidity was not dispelled overnight, at least there was a bit more of a sense that the players were being allowed to express themselves.

"Whatever it was that took place, it seems to work for England. Back in 2003, after a series of turgid victories had taken Clive Woodward's side to the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup, the senior players – Johnson among them – quietly exerted a greater degree of control as they faced the closing stages of the tournament. Not surprisingly, perhaps, "player power" appears nowhere in the index to the book Woodward subsequently wrote to explain his techniques for getting players to do as they are told."

David Kelly revisits Ireland's thrilling victory over France in 2000 in The Irish Independent.

"On the morning of March 19, 2000, France presumed there was only one star in Irish rugby. According to the match programme, at least, Keith Wood was he. How wrong. Several hours later, a new star would be born.

"Paris in the spring had never wrought so much romance for the Irish.Fast forward a bit later, to the self-same Wood - standing astride the green sward where, for the first time in 28 years, Irish blood, sweat and tears were at last spilled for due reward - regaling the Irish hordes who are, disbelievingly, singing 'The Fields' in true celebration.

"Très content!" roars Wood into a French TV microphone. "Très fatigué! Up Ireland!"

James Haskell excelled for England © Getty Images

Richard Williams talks Top 14 with James Haskell in the wake of his star turn for England in The Guardian.

"James Haskell is hardly the first young man to go to Paris to find himself, but the city's magic seems to be working as well for him as it has for generations of artists and writers. With a brace of tries that shunted England towards a pressure-relieving victory over Wales, the 24-year-old flanker vindicated his much criticised decision to leave London Wasps and cross the Channel to join Stade Français last summer.

"Needing this win perhaps as much as any in their history, England had their opponents to thank for the errors that will allow Martin Johnson and his squad to spend the next week working in an atmosphere of relative tranquillity. Had Alun Wyn Jones not tripped Dylan Hartley five minutes before the interval or Stephen Jones not thrown an intercepted pass five minutes before full time, the criticisms of recent months would have intensified.

"Haskell's first try, on the stroke of half-time, came with a plunge for the line at the end of several minutes of English siege. The second found the flanker ready to make the final thrust as England swarmed through the tattered Welsh cover. These moments were, he claimed, prime examples of the squad's new spirit."

Richard Loe has one focus ahead of the new Super 14 season and it's unsurprisingly the breakdown in The New Zealand Herald.

"The main point of interest for many in this year's Super 14 will be the new Sanzar rules at the breakdown.

"I think these could be good but there are two potential problems - interpretations and the fact they are not binding on other international sides; so the All Blacks have to revert to the old rules when they play Northern Hemisphere sides.

"That's because the IRB have decided there will be no more rules changes before the World Cup. Well, okay, but Sanzar have at least realised the game of rugby has a problem and are moving to fix it. I have always said that, for every rule change the IRB approve, they should tear out two old ones that aren't used any more. Rugby has got so complicated that many players, fans and even referees don't understand it."

Brian Moore finds things to applaud and lament in England's opening Six Nations victory in The Daily Telegraph.

"Whether it is a reflection of the general trend towards the immediate or a lack of understanding of the game, the Twickenham crowd is becoming increasingly simplistic, with the mundane cheered as heartily as the good; perhaps it was simply relief that they had something to cheer about in England's victory over Wales at Twickenham.

"Their mood was heartened by the sight of their team running out in something resembling rugby shirts and not something favoured by the ASBO-clans that haunt the nation's shopping malls at the weekends. They also had the promise of pace and creativity in the back line, although the late withdrawal of Riki Flutey put a dent in the manager Martin Johnson's quest to find a settled centre partnership.

"For all the promise of the first 10 minutes, they must have begun resigning themselves to another betrayal of optimism as the game tightened perceptibly with only six points being shared between the sides. In fact, this was a typical Six Nations opening; nervy, imprecise and mistake-ridden and produced a lull in the atmosphere that felt almost preternatural and eerie. There was no lack of effort, but when neither side could make ground the inevitable kick-tennis threatened to take hold and several must have considered reaching for their brandy bottles and revolvers."

Owen Slot gauges the value of an intercept in the wake of England's victory over Wales in The Times.

"The period when England nearly threw away their season may be the one that saves them. In the wake of their 30-17 victory over Wales at Twickenham on Saturday, ambitious Englishmen are thus entitled to ponder the value of a single intercepted pass.

"England head for their second game of the Six Nations Championship, against Italy on Sunday, with confidence and spirits raised. And Rome is a splendid place to be a visitor at any time, let alone when it is a rugby weekend and that is the state of your rugby soul.

"But they travel thus uplifted in large part because of the 75th minute and the game-changing, though otherwise disappointing, Delon Armitage. The England full back’s reading of a pass by Stephen Jones, the Wales No 10, was the moment that saved England. It set in motion a move in which the ball passed through a number of hands and was finally delivered to James Haskell, who completed the score."

Ireland skipper Brian O'Driscoll reflects on his side's disappointing performance against the Azzurri © Getty Images

Ireland got their defence of the Grand Slam and Championship off to a sluggish but successful start in perfect conditions at Croke Park yesterday. Peter O'Reilly writes in the Sunday Times.

"This had all the ingredients for a yawnathon — Ireland, perennial slow starters to the Six Nations, facing opponents whose one virtue is their ability to make life awkward, and a pompous, fussy, interfering referee. And how we yawned, especially during a second half that must rate as one of the worst periods of 40 minutes in championship history.

"Nearly 80,000 spectators sat patiently as Ireland, having built up a 20-point lead inside 35 minutes with a reasonably effective dismantling of the azzurri, then sat back and waited for the Italians to roll over — which, of course, they never do. Once Ireland let standards slip, it couldn’t end quickly enough — zero suspense, zero quality."

Relief, not rapture, greeted England's win against Wales at Twickenham, writes Stephen Jones in the Sunday Times.

"James Haskell was the signature of their victory, with two tries and once again he put to shame the fools who believe he is a playboy. Haskell’s second try with only five minutes remaining was desperately needed to calm English nerves after Wales had come back to within three points with eight minutes remaining.

"The Haskell lieutenants were the Harlequins duo of Danny Care and Nick Easter, who injected what pace there was in the England game. England’s scrum was battered but held on, their lineout was excellent, they had composure even when they dipped alarmingly in terms of performance in the final quarter, and they had enough. They also had the ideal opposition against whom to start a revival. Wales were disastrous in the first half, so bad in so many areas that they betrayed their own strengths."

It is exactly 100 years since France first played in the championship when the old Four Home Unions tournament expanded into the Five Nations Championship and Scotland will be out to kibosh any centenary celebrations today's visitors might have planned. Iain Morrison writes in the Scotsman on Sunday.

"A more recent anniversary concerns Andy Robinson because it was four years ago that he last coached a team in the Six Nations when England finished off the season with a dismal run of three consecutive defeats including that 18-12 reversal at Murrayfield, a 31-6 spanking from the French in Paris and, his last match in charge, a narrow loss against Ireland at Twickenham.

"Suffice it to say he was undergoing the sort of anguish usually reserved for those confined to the inner circles of Dante's Inferno. The television cameras betrayed their sadistic streak, panning in on the English coach who could barely contain his frustration and certainly couldn't prevent it being writ large across his ever expressive face."

Wales' errors gave Martin Johnson's men chance to hit the ground running. Hugh Godwin writes for the Independent on Sunday.

"This match marked Twickenham's centenary. Though the old cabbage patch attracted no kings there were two princes as Harry and William, respectively vice patrons of the English and Welsh unions, engaged in royal sibling rivalry in the East Stand. England wore an old-style off-white kit and some of their forwards – notably the gut-busting flanker Lewis Moody and line-out master Steve Borthwick – were cream-crackered by the end. The result soothed the muscles and the anxiety left over from an awkward autumn."

Sincere cheering breaks out at Twickenham as a fightback by Wales is extinguished. Eddie Butler reports from Twickenham for The Observer.

"This was not a carefree performance by England, but it was less mournful than their autumn series. The boos that had rung around Twickenham in November gave way to sincere cheers. This was a good win well-received, not a complete performance by any means, but a decent foundation stone. It was not without it twists and turns, and even had a full scare, going on long enough to allow Wales to rally in the ­second half.

"...In a game between two very evenly matched teams at the start of a campaign, it was always more likely that an error was going to determine the outcome than any stroke of genius. And so it was that a trip became the sin what won it."

The Australian Rugby Union's David Nucifora believes the Waratahs and the Brumbies must make the Super 14 semi-finals, Josh Rakic writes in the Sydney Morning Herald.

"It's really important that we get an Australian team in the Super 14 finals - it's hugely important.''

"These are the words of Wallabies high-performance director David Nucifora, who says that failure by the star-studded Waratahs and Brumbies sides to at least qualify for the semi-finals could prove catastrophic for the rebuilding of Australian rugby.

''Last year was disappointing for Australian rugby and it's really important that one of our teams at least makes the semi-finals,'' he said. ''We've got teams that have the capabilities to win the competition, I have no doubt about that, so from an Australian Rugby perspective we need them to make good on that potential."

The Super 14 kicks off this week and the New Zealand Herald's Michael Brown and Paul Lewis look at all the franchises and their prospects.

"Blues - Stephen Brett and Alby Mathewson can show they are the inside back pairing the franchise has long coveted; Serge Lilo can develop into the ball-snaffling loosie the Blues desperately need. This season is also important for Lam. Last year, he was appointed to the job late and found himself way behind in planning and organisation. This time there is no such excuse and he also has the squad he wants (save the injury to Williams).

"...Bulls - Bold prediction - the Bulls won't win this year. They still have, however, huge assets such as lock, lineout supremo and captain Victor Matfield and goalkicking first five-eighths Morne Steyn. They also have, arguably, a good draw until the sixth round, when they begin a tour meeting the Force, Blues, Chiefs and Reds in successive weeks. They are still a seriously good defensive side. But will that be enough?"

The main point of interest for many in this year's Super 14 will be the new Sanzar rules at the breakdown. Richard Loe writes in the Herald on Sunday.

"I think these could be good but there are two potential problems - interpretations and the fact they are not binding on other international sides; so the All Blacks have to revert to the old rules when they play Northern Hemisphere sides.

"That's because the IRB have decided there will be no more rules changes before the World Cup. Well, okay, but Sanzar have at least realised the game of rugby has a problem and are moving to fix it.

"I have always said that, for every rule change the IRB approve, they should tear out two old ones that aren't used any more. Rugby has got so complicated that many players, fans and even referees don't understand it."

Can the Blues perform in 2010? © Getty Images

Wynne Gray believes that the pressure is on the Blues ahead of the Super 14 in The New Zealand Herald.

"When the media, as part of this year's Super rugby launch, were involved in a quiz on the competition's history, the results were at best mixed. Not surprising, really. Not when 1066 matches have been played in the professional competition since the Hurricanes hosted the Blues in Palmerston North way back in 1996.

"From memory, it was a boisterous evening, a full house on a balmy Friday night in early March as referee Paddy O'Brien whistled the authorised start for professional rugby in the Southern Hemisphere. O'Brien has since gone north as has the Blues five-eighths Carlos Spencer, though he is making a remarkable comeback with the Lions this season.

"There are other connections. Midfielder Alama Ieremia, who scored the first try in Super history, will be back as part of the Hurricanes' coaching staff when the same sides meet in Albany next Friday to start this year's competition."

Peter Bills talks to Italy's fullback Luke McLean about shedding their 'easy beat' tag in The Irish Independent.

"It's a seldom publicised desire but a potent fact, nevertheless. Italy's rugby men begin their second decade in the Six Nations Championship this afternoon at Croke Park, determined to bury their image of the tournament's pushovers.

"Australian-born full-back Luke McLean says there is a growing urge to end what he calls their "easy beats" reputation. "We are faced by a big job," says the Benetton Treviso player. "But we are still enjoying it. The fact that we have had the same group of players together for a year or more now is a definite advantage, a real step forward. Everyone is getting used to how we all play and therefore we are playing more as a team rather than just individuals.

"We are trying not to be the easy beats now, we don't want that reputation any more. We are going to try and change that this year and put out some good performances."

Stuart Barnes previews the massive Six Nations showdown between England and Wales in The Times.

"This is rugby tribalism at its very best and very worst. The sheer desire for the one country to put it over the other has always been an aspect of the Welsh attitude to this game, even when they were a class apart in the 1970s.

"For England, it is slightly different. Older minds will remember the ritual humiliations in Cardiff but the domination of Europe under Geoff Cooke and then the world under Clive Woodward changed the focus. Under Woodward in particular, Wales were downgraded as New Zealand, Australia and South Africa became the yardsticks.

"But all that has changed with England’s steady slide back into the ranks of world mediocrity. Suddenly the derby game matters massively after the prospect of winning titles disappeared. England have not won the title since 2003 - that was the Grand Slam winning World Cup team. During that era Wales couldn't get anywhere near the then world champions but over the past five years they have managed two Grand Slams, a dream beyond England’s imagination in recent times."

With Twickenham's centenary upon us, Paul Ackford recounts one of the greatest moments to grace the famous ground in The Daily Telegraph.

"Hodgkinson is the next fall guy as Camberabero blasts past him. The winger’s chip and catch flummoxes Dean Richards and Peter Winterbottom. The next hoof, a big one inside to Philippe Saint-Andre sprinting up the middle of the pitch, removes Will Carling from the equation. Jeremy Guscott is the final victim, catching up with Saint-Andre as the French speedster hurtles to the line, but not quite quickly enough as Twickenham explodes in reverence.

"And I was there. I was involved in that most wonderful of scores, involved in the game which was to herald England’s first Grand Slam in over a decade, removing the acrid taste of the defeat against Scotland in another Grand Slam epic the year before. I saw it all unfold. I was on kick-chase duty, jogging towards the posts to take care of any rebounds. I saw the look in Blanco’s eyes as he made his move, sensed the quickening responses of Blanco’s team-mates, eager to get involved. I felt the gathering momentum as one of the great moments of rugby history was played out.

"Or, rather, that’s the memory I wish to carry. The truth is that Blanco looked up, probably smiled dismissively to himself as he saw some big bloke in a white shirt lumbering towards him, and set about making magic. I never got near him."

The Six Nations is guaranteed to provide some colour but will the rugby live up to the occasion? © Getty Images

Writing in the New Zealand Herald, Peter Bills puts the boot into the Six Nations.

"Up in the Northern Hemisphere, they're packing their tin helmets and topping up their hip flasks. It's that time of the year again; the time when the European powers indulge in the international rugby fest they regard as the best in the world.

"Whisper, at your peril, that their coveted, prestigious Six Nations Championship is in reality the second division tournament of world rugby. At Croke Park and Twickenham this weekend, the latest instalments in this vibrant, pulsating, unpredictable, extraordinary and quite often thoroughly ordinary tournament will begin."

The Irish Times' John O’Sullivan finds that Ireland hooker Jerry Flannery is not perturbed by his lack of game time ahead of tomorrow’s Test.

"Jerry Flannery doesn’t quite bristle when the word injury is introduced from the outset of a conversation but there is a world-weary look in his eyes. It’s an understandable reaction in a season that has seen him start just a single match for Munster, the Heineken Cup pool opener against the Northampton Saints at Franklin’s Gardens.

"Indeed the longest sequence of matches he’s put together is three, with Ireland in the November Test series. Chronicling his misfortune, or at least the most recent chapter, begins when he suffered an elbow injury while training with the Lions, days before they were due to depart for South Africa during the summer."

Chris Paterson can look back on 10 years of Six Nations rugby, which is some achievement for a player who had to ride his luck to the limit to get through his first 10 minutes in the tournament. Alasdair Reid writes in the Daily Telegraph.

"Paterson was just 21 when he made his championship debut against France in 2000. It was no secret that he was one of the brightest prospects in the game at the time – he had won his first Scotland cap against Spain in the World Cup a few months earlier – but the French were always going to test the rookie full-back's abilities with a spot of aerial bombardment.

"And so the first kick came his way, high and horrible, in the opening moments of the match. Paterson was under no particular pressure from the French runners as he tracked back to make the catch, but as he focused on the ball he failed to notice that he was heading straight for his own posts.

"Everyone in the crowd had seen the danger, though, sensing that something rather painful was about to happen to the young player."

As the Six Nations Championship opens, players must abandon the ‘aerial ping pong’ that irritates fans, according to Gerald Davies in The Times.

"We all know the main concern, for there has been long debate over a couple of years about what has become a matter of acute anxiety: it is the tedious kicking that frustrates and annoys. After all the inevitable changes and adaptations in tactics that follow the physical conditioning that has made rugby a more dynamic sport, the game is fast becoming repetitive and predictable.

"Not the delicately placed aim to the defending team’s corner, so expertly and consistently highlighted by Ronan O’Gara, for instance, the execution of which is so artfully done that it raises a gasp of admiration at the accuracy and audacity. No. Rather it is those kicks that have derisorily come to be referred to as “aerial ping-pong”, the constant high kicking back and forth.

"If this tactic came to our attention during the most recent World Cup in France in 2007, put to resounding tactical use by Argentina when they reached third position, it has manifestly and yawningly become the most irksome tactic at present employed at the elite end of rugby."

Chris Cusiter will lead Scotland into the Six Nations Championship for the first time on Sunday preparing to stop France's new "wrecking ball" Mathieu Bastareaud, but welcoming the fact that the hosts are clear underdogs against a French team being tipped to win their fifth title and a possible Grand Slam. He talks to David Ferguson in The Scotsman.

"The Glasgow scrum-half took over the skipper's role with Andy Robinson's first Test match as the Scotland coach, following a notable line of No 9 leaders including Gary Armstrong, Bryan Redpath and Mike Blair, and it ended in victory over Fiji. The scrum-half remained in charge in the win over Australia and defeat to Argentina in November.

"He suffered concussion in that historic victory over the Wallabies, Scotland's first in 27 years, but insisted that he remembers it vividly and believes that that battling 9-8 win has laid strong foundations for an improvement on three championships under the previous coaching regime that yielded just three victories.

"He also has a better knowledge than most of what makes French players tick and what weaknesses Sunday's team may possess, having spent two years in France with league champions Perpignan, but acknowledges that the recall of Stade Francais centre Bastareaud to the Test arena this week has not made Scotland's task any easier."

Test rugby demands men of aggression – but with a sharp mind to keep cool amid the mayhem, writes Shaun Edwards in The Guardian.

"Ian McGeechan calls them "Test match animals". According to Sir Ian, and he's identified a few in his time, they are a special breed of rugby player. As the demands get greater they get better. From club rugby, to the leagues, on to European competition and then to internationals ... with every step up they go up a notch.

"It's not just a talent thing. There are plenty of guys who have bags of talent but fall short. The ones that matter have the full package. Talent, skill, fitness, and athleticism almost go unsaid. It's the brain that adds the extra. The mind to fit the occasion.

"Look at Richie McCaw, the All Blacks captain, twice world player of the year and a near-perfect example of Sir Ian's Test match animal. Even the casual spectator has to be impressed by his all-action style of play – the number of tackles he makes, how often he's involved in attacks and the number of times he gets his hands on the ball. However, it's when you look a little deeper that you begin to understand the real value of the man to his team."

England captain Steve Borthwick barks out a lineout call during training earlier this week © Getty Images

Under the fierce scrutiny that will surround his meeting with Fabio Capello on Friday there will be times when the captain of the England football team John Terry might wish that he could trade places with his rugby counterpart Steve Borthwick. Mick Cleary writes in the Daily Telegraph.

"Steve Borthwick apologised twice on Thursday for being "boring", insisted that he would never change, revealed that he could walk unrecognised through the streets of London and that as England prepare for a seminal Six Nations fixture against Wales, they have robust leadership within the squad.

"There are no rifts in the England rugby camp for manager Martin Johnson to address, with lock Simon Shaw declaring that it is as "open and honest" a group as he has ever been involved in.

"Johnson may have other matters to worry about but his captain's steadfastness, moral or otherwise, is not one of them. Shaw confirmed that, unable to sleep on a tour, he had once come across Borthwick, eyes glued to a computer screen in a deserted room. Oh, yes? The Saracens lock was, in fact, reviewing video analysis of the opposition line-out. "I've never been that way inclined," was the only comment Shaw could offer on that front."

Ireland’s challenge for a second successive Grand Slam has sound foundations, but history is against them, while opponents will raise their game, writes Gerry Thornley in the Irish Times.

"History shows that while it was hard enough for Ireland to finally win one Grand Slam, it’s even harder winning them back to back.

In only five years out of 29 have the reigning Slammers backed that up with another clean sweep the following season. England did it three times, in 1913 and 1914, 1923 and 1924 and, most recently, 1991 and 1992. Wales managed the feat once, 1908 and 1909, and likewise France, in 1997 and 1998.

Despite having three of their five games in the latest campaign at Croke Park, Ireland have supposedly the more difficult itinerary, ie France and England away. The last time Ireland managed to beat the big two of latter generations on their own patches was in 1972, and the only other times before that were in 1948 and 1929."

In an exclusive interview with The Times, South Africa's 1995 World Cup winning captain Francois Pienarr discusses his relationship with Nelson Mandela, what he thinks of his portrayal on screen in Clint Eastwood's new film Invictus and the huge effect his side's victory had on his country.

Why has the world's richest rugby nation not won the Six Nations since 2003? Duncan McRae asks this very question in The Guardian.

"Six has become a grimly symbolic number for England. Outright winners of the northern hemisphere's grand old rugby tournament a record 25 times, once more than Wales, whom they play first in this year's Six Nations, England are now haunted by a sextet of misery. Since their World Cup victory in 2003 they have tried on six occasions to win back the Six Nations; and six times they have failed. That bare statistic underlines England's decline from world champions to their current international ranking down at, of course, No6.

They are the richest union in world rugby, with the deepest pool of players, but England have lost 16 of their last 33 internationals at Twickenham. The inevitable break-up of a great old team was at the source of that dismal run. Yet complacency and a startling lack of vision, allied to the wrong choice of coaches and bitter conflict between the Rugby Football Union and the Premiership clubs, meant England finished no better than third in the four championships which followed 2003."

Can the Brumbies scale the heights in 2010? © Getty Images

Greg Growden has high hopes for the star-studded Brumbies in this season's Super 14 in The Sydney Morning Herald.

"The Brumbies believe the push by SANZAR to revitalise rugby could see a team already tagged the Real Madrid of this year's Super 14 earn a Barcelona-style reputation for inventive and entertaining play.

"While some provinces, including the Waratahs, have been reserved about a campaign designed to see southern hemisphere sides play more exciting rugby, the Brumbies have embraced it, and are hopeful it could push their galacticos line-up into the Super Rugby semi-finals for the first time in six seasons.

"While their stocks have been bolstered by the signing of Matt Giteau and Rocky Elsom, giving the Brumbies a near Test quality line-up, their aspirations have also been aided by an official campaign aimed at freeing up the game and giving greater assistance to teams in possession."

Hugh Farrelly runs the rule over Ireland's selection for the opening game of the Six Nations in The Irish Independent.

"Declan Kidney's intriguing team selection in Killiney yesterday saw a first cap for Kevin McLaughlin, the return of 25-year-old, 25-times capped 'veteran' Andrew Trimble and a flurry of conspiracy theories, most of them centring around Ronan O'Gara's inclusion at out-half in place of the injured Jonathan Sexton.

"The phrase 'mind-games' got a lot of airtime amid the media throng's frenzied analysis of Kidney's pick-and-mix machinations. However, once the decision was made to allow Sexton and flanker Stephen Ferris time to recover from dead-leg and knee injuries respectively (10 days ahead of the trip to Paris), this was a selection typical of the Grand Slam-securing supremo's capacity for pragmatic fluidity.

"It is a team to keep people on their toes, exploring new and returning options, and one that arrives laden down with brain-chewing questions..."

Martin Johnson's open selection could lead to problems against a street-wise Wales side, according to Eddie Butler in The Guardian.

"It appears the caution imposed in November by an injury list the length of the Pennines has given way to an invitation to play. Perhaps, however, Martin Johnson does not do invites – this could well be an order to his England team to deliver, starting against Wales.

"Throughout the ages there have never been too many question marks over the amount of possession provided by England packs. Some, notably the ones containing Johnson as a second-row, provided more than others, but this pack looks capable of maintaining a healthy supply.

"It may not be the most elastic in the air – Simon Shaw is more a reinforced girder – and the front row will give away experience against the Lions trio of Gethin Jenkins, Matthew Rees and Adam Jones, but primary possession will not be a problem."

Owen Slot evaluates the role of the 'Leicester mafia' in the England coaching setup in The Times.

"The past week has been particularly big on news for Leicester, and it is not about to stop. This week is an England week and the England management’s roots are deep in Leicester territory. And when England are underperforming, it is natural to look at the root of the problem.

"England and the Leicester connection is an intriguing subplot to the progress of the national team. It is peculiar that the most successful club side over generations should be seen to be anything other than a gift to the national set-up. But the members of the England management detest the subject and they are disgusted by the negative perceptions of the association. They are proud of their roots and loath to discuss them.

"We are just five minutes into an interview with Graham Rowntree, the England scrum coach and a very likeable personality, when he says: “I’ll be frank, if we’re going to spend all morning talking about the Leicester mafia and perceptions of it, I’ll walk away now. I’m sick of hearing about it.”

Is Matthew Tait set to return to England colours this weekend? © Getty Images

England manager Martin Johnson is set to throw off shackles in attempt to beat Wales with pace in Six Nations opener at Twickenham. Mick Cleary writes in the Daily Telegraph.

"England have been stung by criticism that their play has been stilted, one-dimensional and overly-prescriptive, so they will unleash scrum-half Danny Care, outside centre Mathew Tait and fullback Delon Armitage against the Welsh.

For the first time in his tenure Johnson can select from choice, the only absentee being centre Mike Tindall. Jonny Wilkinson gets the nod ahead of Leicester's Toby Flood, while the return of Riki Flutey at inside centre after he missed the November Tests with a shoulder injury will ensure that England have the necessary shrewdness to draw the best from those around him.

"Armitage, another of those missing before Christmas, is at full-back, fighting off the burgeoning claims of Northampton's Ben Foden. The wings will be the established pairing of Ugo Monye and Mark Cueto, both of whom had to step across in November to fill the fullback role."

Former England captain Lawrence Dallaglio believes the players must assert themselves and not be intimidated by team manager’s status. Mark Souster writes in The Times.

"England need to escape the shadow of Martin Johnson’s giant reputation and not be afraid to stand up to the team manager if they are to make an impact on the Six Nations Championship, according to Lawrence Dallaglio.

"The former England back-row forward, who won the World Cup with Johnson in 2003, believes that many of the present squad are so in awe of the former captain’s iconic status in the game that they feel inhibited.

“What we all want to see is players having more input into where they are going, what style of rugby they are to play — in other words, England need to be more player-led and less coach-driven,” Dallaglio said. “The challenge for Martin is that he is such an iconic guy they don’t want to put their hand up; everyone is so afraid of him. They don’t want to say, ‘What are you on about?’ They need to challenge the coaches. When you have that void, you become led by your coaches."

Andy Robinson has made no secret of his intent to be bold and ambitious with his Scotland team and his first selection for the Six Nations Championship underlines the statement in thick pen. David Ferguson writes in The Scotsman.

"The presence of Chris Paterson at fullback brings a kicking influence, and also some extra variety and unpredictability with moves into the fly-half role. After playing at scrum-half with Stade Francais, Hugo Southwell may get his chance to press claims for a return at full-back in the A game against Ireland on Friday, alongside the likes of Mike Blair, Simon Danielli and centre Alex Grove, whose rapid ascendancy dropped slightly with errors against the Pumas.

"The midfield combination is arguably the trickiest to get right with players such as Ben Cairns, Nick De Luca and Grove all in the running, but Robinson has said this squad is for the first two Tests, with a specific focus on the tactics he wishes to employ against France and Wales, and has hinted that others may come into the frame for the remaining three games."

Though the Lee Byrne saga has been disruptive, assistant coach Shaun Edwards insists Wales will still be more than ready for England. He talks to Chris Hewett in The Independent.

"Shaun Edwards, not always a study in relaxation during the build-up to a major international match, appeared particularly fraught yesterday as he chewed the fat ahead of this weekend's Six Nations set-to between England and Wales at Twickenham. "I've slipped a disc in my back and it's giving me gyp," he muttered by way of explanation, knowing it wouldn't wash for a second. Edwards did not achieve iconic status on either side of the rugby divide by allowing mere agony to gain the upper hand. Something else was eating away at him, and everyone knew what that "something" might be.

"Until the Welsh camp receive a definite "yay" or "nay" on the subject of Lee Byrne and his appeal against the profoundly controversial two-week suspension imposed in the wake of the Heineken Cup "16th man" fandango – the Lions full-back, playing for Ospreys against Leicester, returned to the field after treatment on a bloodied toe before a colleague had been withdrawn – they have no means of distinguishing between their posteriors and their funny bones. While Edwards, the No 2 coach to Warren Gatland and the Red Dragonhood's motivator-in-chief, expects to be told one way or the other as early as today, it will still be too late for comfort."

His Argentina nightmare still raw, England's Ugo Monye is seeking redemption on the wing against Wales. He talks to Duncan McRae in The Guardian.

"Sky Plus is a great invention," Ugo Monye says wryly, "but it can be really ­unforgiving when you watch ­yourself making mistakes in slow motion and then you rewind and pause and go over them again. But that's exactly what I did after that terrible game I had for England against Argentina. I came straight home and I watched it and ­analysed it. It made for painful viewing but you have to face it head‑on. You have to be honest with yourself."

"Monye's nightmarish performance against Argentina in November epitomised England's ineptitude throughout a dismal autumn. His fumbling under the high ball also seemed to symbolise all the doubts surrounding Martin Johnson's squad. If Monye is candid in addressing his own errors it should be reiterated that against Argentina he was played out of position at full-back. The fault, therefore, lies as much with Johnson and his team of coaches as it does with Monye."

Ireland coach Declan Kidney - a modest leader © Getty Images

Brendan Fanning gets up close and personal to Ireland's inspirational coach Declan Kidney in The Irish Independent.

"At 9.21am, 39 minutes ahead of the appointed time, Declan Kidney texts to suggest a change of venue. He reckons the original choice is very busy and the alternative will be quieter. Hmm. What's he up to? How does he know it's busy - he's still at home isn't he? Has he rung ahead? More like trying to wreck my head. It's started already.

"I've arrived just as the text lands and check the place out. Sure enough there's a vets' convention - animal doctors not war veterans - and there's a fair bit of activity about the place. As it happens though we've rung the night before and the duty manager says the bar will be closed at that hour and he'll open it specially. Text back saying it's fine. He responds: 'Okay.' Not 'grand - see you there'. Just okay.

"He arrives bang on time looking cheery and making small talk. Warm handshake and a minute or two settling in as we rearrange the coffee and scones around the table. Then we get on with the next phase of the operation."

Chris Rattue predicts a possible change of style for injured All Blacks lock Ali Williams in The New Zealand Herald.

"Ali Williams won't be back - not the Ali Williams we have come to know, anyway. The All Blacks' World Cup hopes have also been dealt a setback.

"As Williams recuperates from his latest long-term injury, the former supercharged lock might consider the need to reinvent his game.When sports stars talk about the shortness of careers, of the wonderful things they have being snatched away by injury or selection, the need to maximise potential when the going is good, then the long tall lock from Auckland is a prime example.

"Once all chipper about a rugby sabbatical, Williams is now devastated because he has an enforced break - along with a very uncertain future, it has to be said."

Bath prop David Flatman casts his eye over the Heineken Cup quarter-final draw in The Independent.

"Toulouse and Stade Français will provide the most luscious of this season's Heineken Cup quarter-finals. At the risk of being crude, the sheer amounts of cash on display will make it a ritzy affair. Who needs Ronaldo and Real Madrid when these French giants are in town? Of course, the panache of the Toulousain three-quarter line combined with the perma-quiffed mane of Parisien hooker Dimitri Szarzewski will add to the occasion and a crowd of typical soccer proportions will complete the spectacle. Not quite an afternoon at The Rec but it'll have to do.

"The prospect of Leinster, Europe's reigning and worthy kings, welcoming perhaps the most complete and in-form Clermont team we have seen also makes the mouth water. Even as recently as a couple of years ago you would have bet the wife on the French getting all homesick and caving in as soon as their hosts showed a hint of willing. But no more. These chaps come to play and have already proved that winning high-pressure matches on the road is now a big part of their repertoire – not a common trait in the Top 14. In fact, one might argue that the only team as well prepared are Leinster themselves. Still, might pop to Ladbrokes for a marital flutter anyway.

"Munster are, of course, a monstrous force at home and will go into their match with Northampton as favourites but at no stage in this competition have they looked like real title contenders. I am confident that every member of this Saints squad believes they can win and, in truth, they have nothing to lose. Having played against the Saints already this season I can vouch for their confidence and tenacity as a group. They have a well-established playing staff, a top-class set-up and, most importantly, a handful of blokes who have the talent and front to win you a rugby match. Euan Murray will garner penalties at scrum time and Ben Foden, fed by Shane Geraghty, will always make defences shiver (can we not mention him skinning me in the 79th minute at Franklin's Gardens please?)"

Wales defence coach Shaun Edwards proves to be an intense interview subject for The Times' Paul Kimmage.

"He is in the Wales team hotel in the Vale of Glamorgan having his portrait taken. The photographer, Richard Stanton, has seated him in a black leather chair and is trying to cajole him: “Move this way, please, Shaun . . . Look here . . . Lean forward . . . hand under your chin.” He complies but does not speak. Five minutes pass. The atmosphere is intense.

"Stanton is pulling rabbits out of hats trying to lighten the mood. “What about a smile, Shaun?” “That’s not really me.” “Well, perhaps just a little more relaxed. Maybe a happy look?” “Not right now.”

"He jumps up and says he needs to use the toilet. Stanton wonders if he will see him again but he returns a few minutes later and the shoot resumes; same pose, same atmosphere. “Perhaps, just for this last pose, you can offer a grin?” Stanton pleads. No reply. “Just a little smile?” “It wouldn’t be right,” he says."