England to clinch Six Nations title
England will follow up on the silver medal they pocketed at the World Cup with some proper silverware, or so says our man Andrew Baldock…
England will walk away with this season’s Six Nations Championship and claim their first title since 2003.
Right, now that’s got the Celts interested, let’s assess the evidence.
What evidence, I hear the cry?
Realistically, there is only one area worth close inspection – European competitions.
Forget the World Cup, that was a proverbial age ago. What matters is the here and now – namely the Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup.
Heading into this weekend’s final round of pool fixtures, English clubs remain on course to achieve a remarkable feat – eight home quarter-finalists.
In the Heineken Cup, London Irish, Gloucester and Saracens are poised to claim three of those prized home ties by topping their respective qualifying pools.
Reigning European champions Wasps, meanwhile, will join them if they can emulate fellow English heavyweights Leicester last season and beat Munster at their Thomond Park fortress on Saturday.
Of the seven English clubs involved in this season’s Heineken Cup, only Leicester and Harlequins have fallen early, with Bristol still holding an outside chance of progressing from Pool Three.
As far as the Challenge Cup is concerned, it is a case for the monopolies commission.
Bath, Worcester and Sale Sharks have already won their groups and secured home draws, while Newcastle will join them if they post a routine victory over Spanish minnows Cetransa El Salvador on Sunday.
Leeds Carnegie should also progress, albeit probably as a best runner-up, giving England 100% quarter-final representation.
Out of 25 games so far played by English clubs during this season’s Challenge Cup tournament, only two defeats have been recorded – Newcastle away to Connacht and Leeds in Calvisano – when both matches were decided by one score.
Whichever way you look at it, such consistent success has to be good news for England head coach Brian Ashton as he plots the Six Nations campaign.
So many of his 32-man Six Nations squad – Danny Cipriani, Toby Flood, Charlie Hodgson, Paul Sackey, David Strettle, Mathew Tait, James Haskell, Tom Croft and Matt Stevens, to name put a few, are in top form.
And Ashton must exude a genuine air of excitement as he prepares for Monday’s first pre-Six Nations training day at Twickenham.
First things first though, and the rip-roaring European weekend that awaits when so many fascinating questions will be answered.
Can Wasps storm Thomond Park? Will Welsh challengers the Ospreys fly or fall in Bourgoin? Can Glasgow continue Scotland’s European renaissance by sinking Saracens?
And so it goes on, gripping games played in white-hot atmospheres that often eclipse the Six Nations for sheer drama, excitement and spine-tingling tension.
But at the moment there are only two real winners – English rugby and Brian Ashton.
