You could make a case for all those top three winning it. Scotland will probably choke and Wales are so depleted that they are out of it.
Nostradamus-level stuff. I hope you made a few pennies at the bookies?
Another highly entertaining 6N, with France winning the title they were robbed of last year. If you were to select a best XV for this year, most of them would be French. The tight 5 are impressive in every facet of play, Dupont is continually elite, the centre pairing of Danny and Fickou is well-balanced and skilful and the back 3 are electric. The workmate in defence is incredible across the entire squad, Shaun Edwards has worked absolute wonders here.
Ireland coming on significantly now, with Farrell's dismal first year a distant memory. The focus for the next nine months now will be building up strength in depth in the front row and at fly-half. Kelleher and Porter both stepped up this season and their absence through injury in the England game was significant. Josh van der Flier and Jamison Gibson-Park both had the best 6Ns of their careers and massively influenced several games. The repeated use of O'Mahony, Murray and Henshaw to close out games from the bench is tactically astute.
England's pack looks scary good, bar the lack of a consistent partner for Itoje in the 2nd row. Genge in particular has developed into a genuinely great player, and Dombrandt's emergence at 8 is coming at the right time. Conversely, England's back line looks a complete mess. there's some good players in the group (Randall, Smith, Marchant, Steward) , but a muddled selection policy seems to be holding them back.
Scotland have regressed to their norm: every game against England is their World Cup final, and they lose against every other tier one nation. The Scottish pack is pathetically lightweight and the two "stars" in the backs, Russell and Hogg, are massively overhyped players who are riddled with inconsistency and prone to poor decision-making when under pressure. The fear for Scotland is that they have already peaked and will be at a low ebb going into the World Cup.
Wales were awful last year, and were awful again this year. The difference is that last year some of their opponents were very ill-disciplined and gifted Wales wins that they would not have otherwise earned. The Welsh pack is a shambles except for Beard and Navidi, although Rowlands shows some hope. The centres are rubbish - Owen Watkin has 31 caps and only 2 tries in his international career - although it is admittedly hard for backs to shine when the forwards are getting pummelled. Wales have relied for far too long on AWJ, Faletau and Davies: the latter two have been in decline for two years and AWJ is finally showing signs that he may be heading the same way.
Italy.... look, they are still behind the other five but they continue to improve each year. They had passages of play against Scotland that were very good and they absolutely earned and deserved their win over Wales. Warburton pointed out yesterday in the post-match conversation that the average age of the Italian squad is 26, and this is promising. They might win two games next year if they are smart and target their resources entirely to the matches they have the best chance (on paper) of winning.
