Men's Six Nations: Team of the Tournament

As usual, I’m going to pick my team of the tournament with a few simple guidelines

1. I pick by units, not individuals. It will be the whole Welsh front row (ha, not this year) for example, rather than a French tighthead, an Italian hooker and a Scottish loosehead.
2. I pick players who have played the vast majority of the games, at least four, and while I might bend the rules in the front row, played really means started them. (Because front row players are often subbed so close to half time I’m happier about bending the rules there.)
3. This year, we have a Grand Slam winner, so I will default to picking them, if they satisfy rules one and two, unless there’s a compelling reason not to. Whoever they faced, head to head, they did enough for their team to be better on the day.

However, picking Irish players in all the positions has a problem. Ireland rotated a load of players for their game against Italy. Then their game against Scotland looked more like a battlefield than a rugby match - they ended up with three props in the front row and a flanker throwing in to the lineouts (both did a very good job, but still) and a chunk of players missing against England because of the damage from the Scotland game.

So where to go?

• Front Row: France. Baille, Marchand and, controversially, Falatea. Falatea was on the bench, yes, but it was for every game and he looked solid. Antonio got suspended after his yellow card was upgraded by the citing officer (I thought that was borderline but ok), Haouas got a straight red early and suspended (good). Aldegheri looked good, but only played one game. Unlucky here: Ireland - the rotation and injuries knocked them out. Individually, Owens, Fagerson, Turner.
• Second Row: France. Flament and Willemse. Again Ireland are losing out because of rotations and injuries, nothing more. They played people against England that weren’t even in their starting squad FFS! Beard doesn’t rack up impressive looking numbers but takes good ball when the lineout does fire for Wales, and destroys opposition mauls at a ferocious rate. Both Scots were unlucky too.
• Back Row: Ireland. O’Mahony, van der Flier, Doris. They played enough that they get the shout. By doing so they edge out the French. Individually Negri and Tipuric were impressive, although the rotation Wales saw would have ruled Tipuric out. Faletau was generally good, even against France when he looked to be pretty well contained but racked up 75 run metres or some such crazy numbers. Dombrandt, except against France, looked decent. The Scots all looked decent. Cannone looked superb in many matches, he’s a real threat at the breakdown.
• Half-Backs. I’m breaking rule 3 here, and taking Dupont and Ntamack. Some of that is the chopping and changing in the Ireland 9 shirt. Some of that is just the pure class from Dupont, and the way he both bossed and changed every game he played. And he played them all. Yes, Sexton bossed 4/5 games for Ireland, and the input of a 10 is just as important, if more cerebral, but Dupont looks like a rugby player. He runs, breaks tackles, makes impossible tackles and more. Sexton’s influence is different, but Ntamack’s is just as important when, as against Wales, the French expect Dupont to be targeted. It makes the pair of them the best for me. Russell and Garbisi are unlucky as individuals to miss out (although Garbisi missed a couple of games due to injury and wouldn’t have been up for consideration). While the chopping and changing didn’t do Wales any favours, both Williams and Biggar looked good by the final two games. Price and Gibson-Park were impressive in a number of games, Webb in a couple to catch the eye.
• Centres. Here we have some fun. Ireland and France are both out because of chopping and changing with injuries. That takes out Fickou, who absolutely should wear the 13 shirt and would if I picked individuals, sorry dude. England and Wales chopped and changed a lot too. So, I’m taking the Scottish duo of Tuipulotu and Jones.
• Back Three. Really there are three teams in contention here, Ireland, France and Scotland. Perhaps unsurprisingly that’s the three teams with a winning record… rule 3 says I should default to Ireland, but… if I look at Ireland, I’d take their wingers and not their fullback. If I look at Scotland, I’d take one wing and a fullback but not the other winger. Not that the other player for each is bad of course but, if I look at France, I’m happy to put all three of them in. Part of what tips that balance is that for Scotland and Ireland you see them each do their core things perfectly well, but even for the stars there’s a sense that the greats are not doing more - they might have a slightly different slant on their core role based on team tactics, but they’re not doing anything outside that core role. For France, in every game, Penaud pulls out some insanely world-class piece of defensive magic AND does his work as a winger under the high ball AND scores these beautiful tries from anywhere AND passes to players in position to go on and score. Ramos does his core stuff as a 15, then kicks the goals and produces these crazy things, like the bat on for a try 75m later, the offload to Dupont behind their own try line for a try 100+m later and so on. It might not work with any other team, but in this team, it’s brilliant. Dumortier might be more of a ‘just his role’ player at the moment, but he’s only got five caps for France and he looks like he always belonged in that shirt. That’s pretty impressive. So there we go, Dumortier, Penaud and Ramos. Hansen, Lowe, van der Merwe and Hogg in particular are unlucky here. Dyer wasn’t picked enough for inclusion but looked impressive. Capuozzo was sadly injured and only played three games, but has crazy, world-class skills.

For ease of reading:

1. Baille
2. Marchand
3. Falatea
4. Flament
5. Willemse
6. O’Mahony
7. Van der Flier
8. Doris
9. Dupont
10. Ntamack
11. Dumortier
12. Tuipulotu
13. Jones
14. Penaud
15. Ramos

Sorry Ireland fans - injuries and rotating against Italy cost you players in the tight five, halfbacks and centres. It was a personal call for the back three.