Zinzan Brooke: ‘Why I’m backing Les Bleus for the Six Nations’
The Six Nations is fantastic. It’s great for rugby and a thoroughly enjoyable set-up every year but I have a funny feeling that the 2022 tournament in particular will be one to watch because of how strong some of these teams were in the autumn.
The November internationals saw European sides perform especially well, resulting in a weekend when the big three southern hemisphere teams all lost on the same day. It’s worth noting that the travelling New Zealand, South Africa and Australia squads were not short of first team players, either.
I actually have three favourites this year: France, Ireland and England. If I was forced into backing one it would be France – just. They’ve got a really strong group of players who offer so much creativity.
France blew me away in the autumn, not least the way they kept up their first-half performance against New Zealand for the whole match. That was a game changer. I hadn’t seen a French side play for 80 minutes like that for a long time.
For England, I would like to see Marcus Smith given a run of games. I’m interested to see whether we see more teams adapt to the club strategy of their best players.
I love Welsh rugby and they may be the defending champions but I think the other teams are stronger. Wales would obviously be my fourth favourites.
I do think there needs to be a discussion on Italy’s Six Nations future, however. We need some of rugby’s best brains to put the situation on the table and sort it out.
If there was change, I think I’d prefer the tournament to go back down to five teams rather than risking the likes of Scotland getting relegated. Italy may be the perennial outsiders in this competition but they’re still a hurdle for sides to overcome.
One thing I will be looking out for this year is some adventurous play from the set piece.
Too often we see teams milking penalties at the scrum but if I were in some of these back rows I’d be trying to play down the blindside, one-twos with my No9, and attempting to break off from the base. There’s so much opportunity there to be exploited.
I think pathways are important in allowing tournaments like the Six Nations to be so tight each year and on Friday up in Edinburgh England Under 20s play Scotland – my son Lucas is in the wider England squad at the moment.
It’s brilliant to have this tournament alongside the senior competition. I think it’s important to make them wait for the big stage that they all want to play on and to keep these games at smaller venues, but it’s great that the U20 Six Nations has a growing profile of its own.
Predictions
| Winner | France |
| Grand Slam? | Yes (if they play like they did against the All Blacks) |
| Wooden Spoon? | Italy |
| Player of the tournament | Marcus Smith (if he gets a run of games) |