With three of the four top-ranked teams in action and Japan 2019 looming, focus and intrigue will be at fever pitch
In January spring still feels far away, never mind the summer beyond it. But the start of the Six Nations, like the first green shoots, is a sign they are on their way. The tournament starts with the first snowdrops and finishes with the first swallows. When this year’s edition is over, the World Cup will be only six months and six days away, and the six teams, their players and coaches, will have a handful of August warm-ups left to finish getting ready for the tournament they have been working towards these last four years and which, if they win it, will define their playing lives. It is a thought that sharpens the mind.
Right now the World Cup is not a topic either Joe Schmidt or Eddie Jones wants to dwell on. During the Six Nations launch last Wednesday both men said they were too busy planning for their opening game of the tournament, when their teams play each other in Dublin, to spare talk or thought on anything after. “I’m not looking as far as the World Cup. I’m not really even looking as far as Scotland,” said Schmidt. Ireland travel up to Murrayfield in the second week. It felt as if he and Jones were both protesting just a touch too much.
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