Six Nations Week One Preview: An opening day Calcutta Cup clash, Wales’ tough test in Dublin and France hope to blow away Italy

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It is that time of year again when six teams from the windswept Murrayfield to the heat of Rome battle it out for the ultimate prize in European International Rugby.

The Six Nations Championship is back and so are the fans after last year’s competition was played behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pundits and supporters alike have been waiting in great anticipation for what may be the closest championship for a long time, with five of the teams relatively quite even in terms of ability.

Week one throws up the age-old grudge match between England and Scotland, while Wales travel to Ireland hoping to banish the angst of their club sides’ awful seasons so far.

Italy faces the daunting task of a trip to Paris looking to avoid the wooden spoon, a fate that has occurred in recent years for the Gli Azzurri.

Scotland vs England

A clash that dates back to 1871 when the Scots triumphed over the English in the first-ever Rugby international.

Scotland has been the dominant side of recent retaining the Calcutta Cup in three of the last four years, and possibly for the first time in a long time, the home side goes into the game as favourites.

Last season’s Calcutta Cup fixture saw Scotland’s first win at Twickenham since 1983 thanks to a try from Duhan van der Merwe and a series of penalties from Finn Russell.

England were clearly rattled by the strength of Scotland’s pack and the ingenious kicking game displayed excellently by Stuart Hogg amongst others.

The key to this matchup between these two rivals may be at fly-half with the inexperienced Marcus Smith going up against the wonderfully unpredictable Russell.

Harlequins’ playmaker is in good form, but can he cope at a wet, windy and hostile Murrayfield, something the Manila-born number 10 is yet to face in his career.

If Smith allows the crowd and the occasion to get to him, then Scotland’s talisman will control proceedings and likely take the game away from the visitors.

Conditions are set to be treacherous in Edinburgh with winds potentially reaching over 65 km/h, which suit Scotland’s kicking game.

Eddie Jones, England’s Coach, has seemed worried in the last few days, while his opposite number Gregor Townsend has displayed cool confidence.

Ireland vs Wales

Wayne Pivac’s Welsh side were the surprise champions of last year’s championship despite France being the favourites.

Wales have the exciting Louis Rees-Zammit as their main attacking threat with the Gloucester winger claiming he is faster than ever, a statement that strikes fear into the hearts of the opposition.

Dan Biggar has been selected to lead the side as captain for the first time and the pressure will be on the Northampton Saints stand-off to lead by example.

Ireland will be relying on their physicality to pull them through a difficult opening test in Dublin.

Andy Farrell’s side are on top form after a strong Autumn international series and it may be Johnny Sexton’s final chance to win another Six Nations title.

The home side no doubt will be utilising their expert box kicking skills to try and pin the Welsh back, but they have to be careful not to allow the visitors’ electric backs space to run at the Irish defence.

It could be a game that proves to be vital with both sides unlikely to give much leeway for flowing attacking play.

The Aviva Stadium will be anticipating an early potential front runner decider and the crowd may also be a big influence.

France vs Italy

Another year, another Italian coach in an attempt at finding a win and avoiding the bottom spot again.

New Zealander Kieran Crowley is the man who is tasked with achieving Italy’s first win in the Six Nations since 2015.

Paris is unlikely to be the place where that will happen, but stranger things have happened.

Questions have been consistently raised over whether Italy should be allowed to compete in the tournament, and if the winning drought continues, the shouts for a demotion will continue to grow.

France really should have won the title last year but slip-ups against Scotland and England meant the championship went to Wales.

The squad is incredibly talented with scrum-half Antoine Dupont at the heart of it.

Les Bleus have not won the Six Nations since 2010, but if they can avoid any slip-ups, then this year may yet be theirs.

Fabien Galthie’s team are very likely to overpower Italy in what needs to be a game where the French make a statement to the rest of the nations that they are better than ever.

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