Men's Six Nations, 2025, Team of the Tournament

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With no Grand Slam this year I’m not constrained to think of reasons not to pick a XV from a single country. Normally I pick by units, front row, second row etc, but in some places combinations of injuries, suspensions and tactical changes are making that frankly impossible. For the most part I’m sticking to picking units from a single country still, but not always. Rather than picking 1-23, I’m going to pick in sections, and give honourable mentions in each section.

Front Row

  • Gros
  • Mauvaka
  • Atonio

L'équipe de bombe, that is the French Bomb Squad, Baille, Marchand and Aldegheri all deserve a mention. I don’t think Sheehan is as good an all-round player as Mauvaka and Marchand, particularly in defence, but he is very good at what he does. Shoeman and Fagerson would make my Lions squad and round out this section. Porter would probably make a lot of teams but, for me, he was a) shown up by WillGriff John, and b) he still draws too many stupid penalties. I’m sure many people would have at least some of the English front row, but they’ve failed to consistently impress me - although they have had good games, sadly especially against Wales. I get that bullying weaker opponents is part of how rugby works, but the great players still show up against stronger opponents in tough matches and the English front row didn’t do that for me.

Second Row

This is harder because of changes, in almost every squad. I’ve ended up picking players from different countries.

  • Flament
  • Jenkins

Flament has been consistently good and present in a dominant French pack. That’s not only down to him, but he’s certainly played his part in it, winning lineouts, turnovers, carrying the ball, making tackles and so on. For Wales, the return of Jenkins from injury has helped shore up their set pieces. Farrell might not take him to Australia, but he’s a weapon.

Gilchrist, Chessum, Roumat are my notable others. Like Porter, Itoje misses out for giving away stupid penalties (eight in all, far too many). He’s also becoming more of a flat-track bully, he looked decent (not great, but decent) against Wales and Italy, good in defence against France and Scotland, but quiet in attack and absent against Ireland.

Back Row

  • Cros
  • Boudehent
  • Aldritt

This was a pretty easy pick, they were the best back row in each of their games, enough said.

Morgan, Dorris, Fagerson, Darge and Ritchie, Earl, Faletau in the few games he played and Canonne were all great too. Jelonch when he came back after injury and Jegou also deserve to be mentioned.

Half Backs

I’m messing things up here

  • Dupont
  • Garbisi

Dupont wins the 9 jersey over JGP and Williams despite his injury. He was just that much better than the rest. Ntamack would partner him, but he missed two games with a suspension after a deserved, but stupid, red card.

Russell deserves a mention in the 10 jersey, and is my pick for the Lions, but he went missing for whole games. I’ve picked Garbisi because, although he certainly went missing in defence at times, he pulled the strings well for Italy in every game. Ireland, Wales and England swapped their 10’s around for various reasons. Evans, the replacement 10 for Wales under Sherratt looks like a star in the making, but didn’t get enough minutes to oust Garbisi. Fin Smith also looks good, to some extent he’s benefiting from a change in attacking tactics from England, plus playing against a misfiring Scotland, Italy and Wales, but he’s taken his chances.

Midfield

  • Menoncello
  • Brex

Although the Italians got beaten by everyone except Wales, it’s not the fault of their midfield. On both sides of the ball they were great, breaking up attacks, breaking defensive lines and putting other players through, making turnovers, everything. Without them, Italy scored fewer and conceded more in every game. They made every other set of centres look ordinary.

Moefana and Barassi, despite their rather frequent errors against Italy, were actually very good. Huw Jones had a good tournament. Ringrose would have been here if not for the red card. The English swapped around too much, and didn’t get a centre pairing that really worked all that well for long stretches. Thomas and Llewelyn were starting to look for Wales, but only with Evans making the back line fire. Who would have thought playing them in their preferred positions would such a good thing? Neither of them make my Lions team, maybe as dirt trackers, but they’re part of my hope for the future.

Back Three

A French team that broke the M6N try scoring record ought to be a shoe-in for the back three. But Penaud was dropped a couple of times, Ramos played 10 when Ntamack was suspended so there isn’t a consistent “French back three.” So, here we go:

  • Bielle-Biarrey
  • Capuozzo
  • Kinghorn

If he’d stayed at 15, Ramos would absolutely be my pick for 15, despite Kinghorn breaking all those records. Both Penaud and Attisogbe were really good, but three and two matches respectively are not enough to get into the TOTT, particularly with the other choices. Graham was good but missed too many games due to injuries. The same for Lowe and Hansen. Murray looked great after the change in coaches for Wales and ought to be in consideration for the Lions. Van der Merwe ran hot and cold.

Final Thoughts

I didn’t expect to pick four Italian players. I think quite a few teams of the tournament might have Menoncello, Brex and Capuozzo. Garbisi is more of a stretch but I think the best 10 over all five games. It was nice to be able to genuinely pick one Welsh player, and mention several others this year. Yes, we haven’t won for a long time, but the shoots of recovery are there, and good players are starting to emerge.

I’m sure the English press will be picking a lot of England players. However, it’s worth remembering that, although they finished second, they only genuinely performed in one match where they got off to a great start, the referee kicked the self-belief out of the Welsh crowd and team, and the English went on to bully them. They had a decent 15 minutes against Italy too, and that’s really it. They may well go on to build from this, but nobody impressed over all five games. Likewise, the decline of the Irish is evident, with no one in the team of the tournament.

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