“Who will win the Six Nations?”

JANUARY 2019. There’s no ‘Dry January’ at the Rugby Union Writers’ Club Dinner.

The drink is flowing. Warren Gatland, an honoured guest, gets onto the stage and says Wales are going to win the Grand Slam if they win their opening fixture in Paris. Forget England and Ireland at home, it is France away; the game that held the key to the Six Nations.

So it proved as Wales fought back from being outplayed for long periods to win the match. So it would be when the two sides slugged it out again in Japan. Wales won their quarter-final despite France being the better team.

But Wales now have a new coaching team, as do France – as you will read about elsewhere in this edition (P64-69). Intangibles like Gatland and Shaun Edwards made a massive difference over the years. So, too, in an equally significant if ineffective manner, did a second-rate France management. Edwards is now in the French camp; this is perhaps the most notable exchange of coaching talent in many years.

Last year’s France had a ton of talent. Their first-half display against Argentina at the World Cup was France as we have dreamed them for years: astute running lines, soft-handed offloading giants. Given the foundations of a decent management, they look dangerous.

England have France on the