How Europe's big six shape up

ENGLAND

Coach: Clive Woodward. Captain: Lawrence Dallaglio. Last season: champions.

One by one, the old warhorses are being put out to grass. Martin Johnson has retired, Neil Back has been dropped, and by the time the campaign is over, another couple of players could find themselves in a field of their own, munching thistles.

Woodward's game-by-game strategy is still valid, but he has one eye on the future. James Simpson-Daniel and Chris Jones are the new names to watch. A second consecutive Grand Slam would be an achievement to rank alongside the winning of the World Cup, especially as the game against France is in Paris.

Jonny Wilkinson virtually guarantees England 20 points a game. But he is absent, and that makes it interesting.

Prediction: First, but no Grand Slam.

FRANCE

Coach: Bernard Laporte. Captain: Fabien Pelous. Last season: third.

Whatever happened to the French backs? Where is the new Jo Maso, the 21st-century Serge Blanco? Their game has been Anglicised to such an extent that the blue-shirted three-quarters now serve in the trenches rather than trip the light fantastic.

Frederic Michalak and Clement Poitrenaud may stand out, but there is nothing very beautiful about the likes of Brian Liebenberg and Tony Marsh, foreigners imported to lay bricks rather than write poetry.

The big talents in the French game are now to be found up front, in the intimidating shapes of Sylvain Marconnet, Pieter de Villiers and Serge Betsen. For all that, France remain a threat, with the fixture list their biggest weapon.

Prediction: Four wins, second place.

IRELAND

Coach: Eddie O'Sullivan. Captain: Brian O'Driscoll. Last season: runners-up.

International rugby teams look ahead, not back, but Ireland must be wondering whether last season's Grand Slam decider against England at Lansdowne Rd, which they lost 6-42, caused them lasting harm.

The only Irish Slam that day was the sound of the dressing-room door closing behind the defeated.

Since then, Ireland have under-performed. They have injuries to important players - Geordan Murphy, Dennis Hickie, Eric Miller, O'Driscoll himself - and Keith Wood, inspiration on legs, has packed it in.

Ireland have the most potent locking partnership in the tournament in Paul O'Connell and Donncha O'Callaghan, but locks do not win titles on their own.

Prediction: Mid-table, third at a pinch.

ITALY

Coach: John Kirwan. Captain: Andrea De Rossi. Last season: fifth.

The most intriguing contenders, in many ways - or rather, they would be but for injuries to three players of considerable clout: halfback Alessandro Troncon, flanker-turned-wing Mauro Bergamasco, and exceptional young fullback Gonzalo Canale.

A full Azzurri team, harbouring a profound sense of grievance following their despicable treatment by the organisers of the World Cup and pumped up at the prospect of an early shot against the champions of everything, that really would have been worth watching.

As it is, a single victory in Rome against the Scots is probably their limit.

Without Troncon, they lack know-how at halfback; without Canale, they are without a cutting edge.

Prediction: An encouraging fifth.

SCOTLAND

Coach: Matt Williams. Captain: Chris Paterson. Last season: fourth.

Matt Williams talks a good game; he is a world-class rugby conversationalist, a confabulator of quality.

This is excellent news, for rugby exists on its rhetoric. But the new coach must deliver results as well as oratory, and meaningful results may be as elusive as they were in Dublin, where Williams flattered to deceive at Leinster before landing the job as Ian McGeechan's successor.

Scotland will have a good pack: Tom Smith, Gordon Bulloch, Nathan Hines, Jason White and Simon Taylor will be joined by the hot new open-side flanker from Edinburgh, Allister Hogg. But the question is, how will they use the ball they win?

In the games that mattered in the World Cup they managed only two tries.

Prediction: Sixth and last.

WALES

Coach: Steve Hansen. Captain: Colin Charvis. Last season: wooden spoon.

Hansen's predecessor, the acerbic Graham Henry, was always wary of Welsh expectation. In fact, it gave him the yips.

"In Wales," he said, "it is either heaven or hell. There is no place in between."

Pushing both New Zealand and England to the limit sent the public hurtling towards paradise. Failure now will send the coach and his team into the abyss.

On the face of it, there is no reason why Wales should not win three of their five matches and end in credit for only the third time in a decade.

Hansen is fast-tracking a generation of bright young players such as Jonathan Thomas and the Jones boys, Duncan and Adam, and there is a desire to play it wide.

But as Henry said, one defeat can wreak an awful lot of havoc.

Prediction: Maybe fourth, maybe better.