2026 Men's Six Nations Review and Team of the Tournament

I don’t normally do a review of the tournament. Typically, after a week or two you get to see the teams locked in to a kind of stream, and you can predict the results from there on. There might be the odd upset but that’s it.

So, if you looked at week one, Italy had arrived after beating Scotland, France and England were awesome and Le Crunch was going to decide the championship and the Grand Slam. Ireland were definitely past it. Then Ireland staggered past Italy, but the Italian scrum destroyed the Irish scrum, and you could rack that up to the Aviva factor. But Scotland demolished England. And everything we thought we knew in advance was thrown out of the window.

This year’s M6N feels more like a series of overlapping character arcs, so let’s look at it that way, in finishing order.

France: The French started with a bang, a perfect half of rugby against Ireland and everything went downhill from there! That’s harsh, even in their two worst performances France were pretty damn good, but still broadly true. The French, of all the teams, seemed to be the most even in performance, home and away, their real issues were youth and injuries. They never put the same team out, which is true of all teams I think, but the French seemed to have more changes than most, and kept switching between young players, both in age and caps, as injuries kept wreaking havoc particularly in the centres. The backrow was also continuously disrupted. Galthié's tactics kept the tight five, particularly the second rows, changing too.

Whilst these changes probably contributed to the defeat to Scotland, and making the final game far more tense than it needed to be, in the wider context of building up to Australia, France have now widened their squad and gained valuable experience. They trialled a new, high scoring, attacking system, with a lot of the old and a little bit of new kicking added on. Arguably the defence struggled against Scotland and England - you can also argue that after years of dominant defences attack coaches have caught up and are winning that battle, and the kick chase also changed for those games. But the attack produced 40+ points in both games. There are things to tweak rather than go back and completely rebuild.

Ireland: Like France, Ireland won four matches, losing only one away. However, unlike France, they never really looked comfortable, except when demolishing England. It’s probably untrue to say that they only beat each of Italy, Wales and Scotland because they played them in Dublin, but they were each fairly narrow victories, save the last, and you could justify that argument, with decreasing degrees of confidence. Farrell has started to bring in new faces, Baloucoune definitely fits the mark, McCloskey is not really young but has finally been given a run of games. But Lowe would have played, save for injury, and was replaced by Stockdale who is even older. Furlong kept playing despite being completely pwned, Ringrose is showing his age and probably won’t last another 18 months. JGP is rumoured to be off to Japan at the end of the URC season and won’t be available for Ireland after the first three games of the Nation's Championship. His replacement played about 30 minutes across these five games. Ireland were the first of the “over performed at home” teams.

Scotland Beating England is almost de rigueur, especially at home. They dug deep to beat Wales the following week, a reflection of the gap between them really. Beating France at home was a shock to just about everyone. They looked flat the following week. They also looked clueless playing Italy away in the rain. Ok, the rain was crazy, but it’s not like it never rains hard in Scotland. This makes them the second of the over performed at home teams. They were much worse away. They also seemed to emotionally crash after a big win. For Italy, who I’ll discuss below, I’ll be more forgiving, for Scotland, these wins at home over teams pretty near them on the rankings ladder shouldn’t be so draining, so there’s something wrong there.

Italy: The third of our teams who arguably over performed at home were Italy. They beat Scotland and England in Rome, England for the first time ever, and lost away to France (unsurprisingly), Ireland (closely) and Wales. With Italy, who are definitely still improving, they’ll be, rightly, disappointed not to have won one or two of those. On another day they could have beaten Ireland and, despite the improvements from Wales, they’ll feel they should have won that game. However, unlike Ireland and Scotland, that consistency, the ability to back up, play well away, is something for Quesada and the players to work on. And that’s ok, that’s where they are. Better, but still on that upwards arc. Having a let down after their first ever victory over England will sting, but with a bit of distance they should forgive themselves. That was a huge moment for this group of players, yes, but a huge moment for all of Italian rugby. Crashing the next week was probably inevitable. The arc for Italy this year might look up and down, but over this year and last year it’s upwards, and with a huge achievement. There’s a lot to be proud of. Next year, three home games, and a chance to improve on how they play away.

England: England have a complicated seeming arc. A win at the start and a decent looking score at the end, nothing in the middle. But if you step back, it’s not that hard to make sense of. They faced a Wales team that were really a collection of players rather than a team. They were struggling for a plan, discipline and identity. A big victory looked impressive but said more about an opposition that had four yellow cards than it did about England. Then reality started to bite. Losing to Scotland in Edinburgh isn’t a disaster, it’s becoming the norm. But a 42-21 demolition by Ireland at Twickenham, with records tumbling like defenders were falling off McCloskey was terrible news for England, joyous for everyone else. Losing to Italy for the first time the following week was even better, or worse. Scoring a bucket load of points against France in France looks good, losing the match looks better for everyone else, except perhaps the Irish. But when you win by throwing away four years of the head coaches attack plan, and you lose because you’ve kept the defensive plan and the opposition run round it for fun, the 46 points you scored are highlighting the problems you’ve got, not papering over them. England’s arc is of throwing the bathwater out, and not throwing the baby out with it when they really should have done. Where they go from here will be interesting.

Wales: The Welsh have the clearest, simplest, and most classic arc of the six teams: from bumbling stableboy to hero. The match against England was a disaster, you can, fairly, trot out all the clichés of men against boys and so on. But it was a team, albeit a team playing bad rugby as later results revealed, against a collection of individuals playing without a clue. And then there were a few changes to personnel, for the last time really (there were changes after that due to injury rather than chopping and changing) and the gradual emergence of a plan. The lineout started working, the scrum started working, the defence gradually started making tackles. Discipline improved markedly, both in terms of the number of tackles falling and in terms of cards - having started with four in one game, there were two over the remaining four games - and gradually an attack started to emerge. Much like Italy, Wales are still on an upwards arc, but theirs has been faster, Wales have a deeper tradition of rugby and, despite the best efforts of the WRU, a wider pool of players to draw from. There’s still a lot of work to do, but there’s no longer a need to scrabble for faint glimmers of hope, there are real bright lights of it.

Overall: This has been described as the best ever Men’s Six Nations. It’s certainly the best I can remember. Part of that has been the unpredictable nature of the games, but part has been the narrative that each team has written for itself.

Team of the Tournament

If you’ve been here for a while, you’ll know that I normally pick by units, front row, second row etc, from a single nation, providing them played most of the tournament together. If in doubt, I’ll defer to the champions. However, France chopped and changed so much, with injuries and tactical choices, that’s hard this year. So I’m going to try and pick individual players, and mention some others. There are going to be points where there will be repetition along the lines of “If X had played more regularly…” but that’s the way it goes.

1. Carré. Rhys Carré did the core job well, he scrummed, tackled and made those tackles around the ruck. He also scored three tries, two from a sensible range for a prop, one from outside the 22 with a big handout off a winger. Add a great turnover penalty and he’s a star already. Gros and Fischetti were also impressive. Genge might have made the list but for his card and the penalty try.
2. Lake. This was a tough call. Statistically he’s undoubtedly not the best but a lot of that is down to the shambles Wales were in week one, and the way they’ve improved is down to their captain too. Marchand and Mauvaka also get a look in. Sheehan would, but he missed too many games.
3. Ferrari. It feels rough to only pick one Italian in the front row, but this guy won POTM without touching the ball, that’s how dominant his scrummaging was. He also tackled like a beast. His backup, Spangoni, who ejected Furlong through the top of the scrum, and Aldegheri are the other two names here. Heyes probably deserves a mention but I’m not going to give any love to the English.
4. Cannone. If Ollivon or Flament had been consistently picked, and after that the Irish had been a bit more stable in their selections, this would have been easier. It feels wrong to pick players from England or Wales, who only won one game each, unless there’s exceptional circumstances, so that leaves Italy and Scotland. Italy were superior in the tight to Scotland, so Italian locks it is.
5. Ruzza. If Meafou had played more games, he’d be my first choice, by a country mile, but he didn’t so he’s my only reserve. Guillard just misses out on a named place, he was very good in a different role but didn’t have quite that impact.
6. Cros. Lamaro, Mann and realistically Beirne get a shout here. But as a unit the French backrow were dominant and I’ve picked them en masse.
7. Jegou. The suspension for gouging very nearly cost Jegou, Darge was the other name on the list but he really only had two good games, Jegou had 3.5.
8. Jelonch. Wainwright was not going to make my starting pack, but deserves a mention. Ireland swapped Doris and Conan around, which cost them both. Cannone was really close to getting the nod ahead of Jelonch, but the Italian loss to Wales put Jelonch ahead of him. Earl shone in a poor England team, but I’m mentioning him as the best of a bad bunch rather than a serious contender.
9. Dupont. Really there are four contenders here. Dupont obviously, JGP, Williams and White. Dupont didn’t have the number of huge moments we’ve seen from him in years gone by, but used his reputation and his skills to draw attention and then get the ball to players in space, when France made breaks he was always there and always selected the right player and was a big reason why France scored 30 tries in five games. If rugby recorded two assists per try, rather than one, he’d have some huge number of assists. The other three were equally behind almost every good moment for their teams but weren’t as targeted or as dominant in every aspect of the game as Dupont.
10. Jalibert. He got involved so much more in so many ways than anyone else in his position, at least according to the stats. Russell was, unsurprisingly, second, but by some distance. Ireland and Wales seem to have sorted out their 10’s going forward, but neither Crowley nor Edwards were going to be taking this spot this year. They might be in the mix next year though.
11. LBB. Really no one gets close to him. Steyn deserves a mention but is a distant second.
12. McCloskey. See below for comments.
13. Menoncello. The centres, overall, kept getting injured and moving around. If they’d stayed fit arguably any of the seven (I think) players the French used in these two positions in five games might have been up for it. Menoncello shifted from 12 to 13 and back. Tuipulotu and Jones were unlucky not to get a look in, and would have been selected if I were picking units. James looks great, Hawkins is still a work in progress. England kept chopping and changing their centres, like so many teams except Scotland and Wales, but that’s because they were crap. They may have found their long term answers if we judge just on the France game, but the same pair looked awful against Italy so who knows. No names, because they don’t deserve it after two games.
14. Attisogbe. This was close, but he was the second highest try scorer, and the player with the most involvements in recovering other people’s kicks, that’s key activities for a winger. Graham and Baloucoune were in the mix.
15. Ramos. Highest points scorer for the fourth year in a row. France's all-time highest points scorer. Clinched the championship with that kick. That kick for the LBB try, eclipsed by Carré's try but one we'll still remember for years to come. Having him as a second playmaker, and stepping in when Jalibert was injured, makes the French so much more dangerous. Kinghorn as a distant second. Pani was close to Kinghorn, possibly better in fact. I’m not going to count LRZ in the totals below, he wasn’t in contention, but his upward arc as a fullback mirrors Wales' arc and shows the work he’s put in. I’m mentioning him for that rather than as a contender for TOTM.

Country count

This count shows starters and genuine mentions as contenders. I’ve mentioned a few players from England and Wales who I thought deserved some level of recognition short of being “reserves” for some reason.

• France 8 +12 =20 (there are a lot of French centres in this count)
• Ireland 1 + 5 =6
• Scotland 0 + 8 =8
• Italy 4 + 5 =9
• England 0
• Wales 2 + 2 =4

The official team of tournament is: 15. Thomas Ramos (FRA), 14. Kyle Steyn (SCO), 13. Tommaso Menoncello (ITA), 12. Stuart McCloskey (IRE), 11. Louis Bielle-Biarrey (FRA), 10. Finn Russell (SCO), 9. Antoine Dupont (FRA); 1. Rhys Carré (WAL), 2. Giacomo Nicotera (ITA), 3. Simone Ferrari (ITA), 4. Tadgh Beirne (IRE), 5. Mickaël Guillard (FRA), 6. Jack Conan (IRE), 7. Rory Darge (SCO), 8. Caelan Doris (IRE)