Five new captains give Six Nations fresh feel

LONDON – A post-Rugby World Cup Six Nations always has something of a reset feel about it but the 2024 championship, featuring five new captains, a new coach and missing four icons of the sport, feels even more like the start of the next four-year cycle.

Jamie George (England), Dafydd Jenkins (Wales), Peter O’Mahony (Ireland), Gregory Alldritt (France) and joint captains Finn Russell and Rory Darge (Scotland) will don armbands in February, with Italy’s Michele Lamaro the only man left standing.

“This is the greatest achievement of my life,” said 33-year-old hooker George. “I’m not hiding away from the fact there is additional pressure and responsibility. I personally think that pressure is a privilege.”

O’Mahony, a 34-year-old flanker, was equally proud, saying: “To get a phone call like the one I got last week is a very special one.

“It was a pinch-me moment. Family are proud, it’s the biggest honour of my career.”

The competition will also feel slightly different without Alun-Wyn Jones (Wales), Johnny Sexton (Ireland), Owen Farrell (England) and Antoine Dupont (France), though the Frenchman’s absence is temporary as he switches to Sevens ahead of the Paris Olympics.

There is more stability on the coaching front, with Italy’s Gonzalo Quesada, in for Kieran Crowley, the only new face.

France enter as favourites and the title could be decided even before four of the teams have even played, as the French host 2023 Grand Slam winners Ireland in a blockbuster opening night in Marseille on Feb 2.

The teams’ clash in Dublin last season, when Ireland emerged 32-19 winners, was one of the greatest Six Nations games, but both sides ended the year in pain after their World Cup quarter-final exits.

Both need to start again without their most inspirational players, scrum-half Dupont and fly-half Sexton.

Maxime Lucu looks set to take over as France’s No. 9, having shown during the World Cup, when Dupont was injured, that he was up to the task, while Alldritt’s leadership will useful.

Ireland look strong in all areas, with O’Mahony a natural leader, but filling the fly-half hole will be far more daunting.

With Sexton so far ahead of his rivals for over a decade, Ireland’s three fly-halves have just 12 caps between them and inexperience could be a factor.

Since winning the 2020 edition, England have only two wins in each of the last three seasons.

Their confidence will be buoyed by their run to the World Cup semi-finals. But fans will now be desperate to see them add some attacking variety to the effective but dull kick-and-territory game that took them to the brink of the final.

It is a similar story for Wales, who looked all over the place in the 2023 edition when they lost four of their five games but, under the guiding hand of Warren Gatland, found form at the World Cup.

Scotland had the opposite experience, enjoying a third-place finish in the Six Nations, only to fall flat at the World Cup.

After Italy ended their 36-match losing streak by beating Wales in 2022, they were back to normal last season with five straight losses and will need to find something special to avoid another clean sweep of defeats. REUTERS, AFP