The three talking points from Week One of the Six Nations we've chosen to focus on are: England's selection dilemma, the possibility of glory for Ireland and Italy's big win over France.

It's that time of year again.

Since the Olympic and Paralympic Games concluded last summer, we've been somewhat starved of world-class sport. But the Six Nations is back and this year it's a particularly difficult tournament to predict.

Standard procedure in the build-up to sporting occasions like this is to select one obvious candidate to become champion and watch the action unfold. However, it's not that simple this time round.

By David van der Merwe

The 2012 Six Nations is a thing of the past and Wales have been crowned Grand Slam, Triple Crown and Six Nations Champions. The tournament however had some surprises as well as disappointments. Here is a brief recap on each team and their performance over the last 7 weeks.

Speaking to Stuart Cameron of Talking Rugby following Scotland's narrow loss to France at Murrayfield, try-scorer Stuart Hogg admitted that his side could have done more.

Scotland take on France in the last match of this weekend’s Six Nations fixtures. This can become the game of the weekend if the England vs Wales fixture doesn't live up to expectations. 

By David van der Merwe

The week leading up to the second weekend of Six Nations Rugby was filled with some interesting talking points. First there was the Scottish try that was but wasn't given. In the eyes of the Scots a clear try however not given. In my eyes at most a 50/50 decision.

Discipline issues grazed the headlines and in the end all were happy with the 7 week ban handed out. But the big talking point was the pitch in France. Tents erected with blowers and heaters put on, because the field was frozen. And a wait till game day to decide if play would continue or not. But let us get to the action of what transpired over the last few days of Six Nations rugby.

Wales fought their way back into this one after a disappointing first half. Scotland's discipline slipped and at one point the visitors only had 13 men on the field but were hard done by when referee Roman Poite ruled out a try for a knock on that was proved wrong by video replays. In the end, Wales won the match 27-13 and Hamish Stuart caught up with the players and coaches after the game.

By David van der Merwe

The first round of the 2012 Six Nations has come and gone. Many match reports have been written and many more debates have been going over a pint of lager or over a "braaivleis" fire. (Barbecue for the non Afrikaans). Here is a quick round up of my predictions before the weekend and the actual out come.

By David van der Merwe

Scotland hosted England, current Six Nations champions and holders of the Calcutta Cup at Murrayfield on Saturday in their opening 2012 Six Nations match. If you had asked English fans before the game, they would have told you that England had as much chance to win as you had staying warm in only a t-shirt in the -10 degree weather. But England walked away 13-6 victors on the day.

England started with 3 uncapped players and 4 on the bench. The first half was dull and boring with Owen Farrell and Dan Parks exchanging penalties. Farrell put England ahead only to see Parks erase the lead and swing it 6-3 into Scotland's favour at half time.

After the opening day of Six Nations action, it's time to take a look at what the players and coaches had to say. Russell Hargreaves was at Murrayfield for the Calcutta Cup. England hadn't won for eight years but Stuart Lancaster's new England team changed the history books and won the match 6-13.

By David van der Merwe

Scotland's rugby history dates back to 1871. On 27 March 1871 at Raeburn Place, Scotland played against England in the first ever International rugby match to take place. Scotland won the game 1-0. They have competed in every Five Nations tournament since the start in 1883. Scotland have been the outright champions 14 times and shared the spoils a further 8 times.

Scotland won the last 5 Nations championship in 1999 before Italy joined the competition to make it the 6 Nations in 2000. In the last 12 years scotland couldn't win the tournament and have struggled to get into the top 4. They have beaten all other teams in the 5/6 Nations in one season on 3 occasions giving them the grand slam. This was in 1925, 1984 and 1990. They have also managed to beat all 3 other Home Nations to give them the Triple Crown on 10 occasions.

Credit: Nick Heath/Rugby Media

England have announced their squad for the Calcutta Cup match on Saturday evening in the opening round of the 2012 RBS Six Nations.

Owen Farrell of Saracens and son of new England interim coach, Andy Farrell, will start in the centre for his first England cap alongside fellow team mate and debutant, Brad Barritt. Northampton's Phil Dowson will also make his debut in the side and Saracens' Mouritz Botha will earn his second cap in the forwards pack.

David Strettle, whose England caps have been frustratingly limited due to injury, will start alongside Chris Ashton and Ben Foden in the backs. England have a set of new players on the bench with Jordan Turner-Hall, Mike Brown, Lee Dickson, Geoff Parling and Rob Webber all hoping to get on the pitch at Murrayfield.

At the RBS Six Nations 2012 launch earlier in the week, the guys from Talking Rugby spoke to all of the Six Nations coaches.

Warren Gatland remains the coach of Wales after a fantastic World Cup campaign whilst Philippe Saint-Andre replaces Marc Lievremont as coach of France. Former England Saxons coach, Stuart Lancaster, has replaced Martin Johnson as England boss after England's disappointing World Cup display on and off the field.

Declan Kidney remains the Irish coach and Andy Robinson keeps his job despite not taking Scotland into the World Cup quarter-finals in New Zealand. Jacques Brunel, the former assistant coach of France, will take over from Nick Mallett as coach of Italy. See what the coaches had to say in the audio interviews below.

Dan Parks shows his frustration.

Chris Ashton confirmed victory in the dying minutes to end Scotland's chances of reaching the knock-out stages. Scotland deserved the win after they dominated in the first half but Martin Johnson's half time team talk must have inspired England to go out prepared for the hard battle that awaited them. 


Scotland started strongly but both sides remained equal in the opening quarter. Ruaridh Jackson came off early with a hamstring problem and Parks replaced him. Parks shrugged off any questions about his kicking ability following Scotland's loss to Argentina by opening with two Scotland penalties. 

Scotland lead 9-3 at the break after a confident kicking performance from Dan Parks. Click read more to view full statistics from the first half of England v Scotland.

Click read more to see Sudi's choice starting 15 for England to face Scotland tomorrow.

Scotland will have one last chance to proceed to the next stage of this years Rugby World Cup. However, one problem might stop them. That problem is England. England have progressed and played better as the tournament has gone on and will look to battle all the way to final. This will be yet another hard fought encounter that will see two of the home nations come to blows in spectacular style. Click read more for squad analysis and predictions...

For Wales, England and Scotland they made their opening matches a tough task. It has to be said, Wales did have to take on reigning  champions South Africa and England played Argentina but for Scotland they only just beat rugby minnows, Romania. And Ireland weren't particularly good either, they played USA and for the first thirty minutes they had made only a few points.

Kicking caused a lot of problems for the Home Nations and put them under pressure on the world stage. Jonny Wilkinson was the most disappointing, missing 5 out of his 8 kicks. In hindsight you could say England would have trampled over the Argentinians had Wilkinson scored those vital kicks.

Jonny Sexton was a little unsuccessful too. He missed less than Wilkinson but in the opening thirty minutes of Ireland's clash with the Eagles he missed 2 kicks and the opportunity to give his side a bigger lead.

Nations from the world are calmly awaiting the announcement of their sides world cup squad today and for the Scots, the wait is over. The side features 4 of Gloucester's player then mainly Glasgow and Edinburgh players. But representatives selected have also come from a few other English, Welsh and French clubs. Scotlands world cup bid will begin with their opening match against Romania.