England
England come into this years Six Nation’s tournament off the back of a turbulent Autumn Nations Series. Defeats to New Zealand, South Africa and Australia on home soil wouldn’t have been what coach Steve Borthwick would have hoped for with the Red Rose only win coming against Eddie Jones’ Japan in the final week of the Autumn tests. Two of the sides three defeats were within a five-point margin with Borthwick’s side losing all three games in the last 20 minutes of the contest.
Looking back further and at last year’s Six Nation’s, narrow games are something England have become accustomed to. They picked up victories against Wales and Ireland at Twickenham and a victory against Italy in Rome with their combined winning margin across all three games sitting at just six points. A nine-point defeat to Scotland in Edinburgh and a loss to France in Paris by two points saw England finish the tournament in third.
They have couple of injury concerns in the backline with both George Furbank and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso both sidelined for the tournament, Borthwick has several selection decisions before their first game against Ireland next month, including the ever present debate between Fin and Marcus Smith at fly-half.
Predicted finish – 3rd
Ireland
With three wins from four in their Autumn Nations Series along with a memorable victory over South Africa in Durban, Ireland come into this year’s tournament as one of the favourites. That result in South Africa last summer through a late Ciaran Frawley drop goal was the Irish’s second ever victory in South Africa, and it was made that much more impressive as they were without five of their first choice starting fifteen. Having begun their Autumn Series with a disappointing defeat to the All Blacks, Andy Farrell’s side picked up a convincing win over Fiji along with two narrow victories over Argentina and Australia.
Last year’s Six Nations champions only picked up one defeat on the way to their triumph in 2024, coming against England, thanks to a last-minute Marcus Smith drop goal. An impressive 38-17 victory over France in Paris on the opening night of the tournament was followed with convincing wins over Italy and Wales, along with victory over Scotland in the final weekend of the tournament to secure last year’s title.
Unlike England, Ireland come into this year’s tournament with no injury concerns and will be looking to match last year’s success and then go one further with their eyes on the Grand Slam.
Predicted finish – 2nd
Scotland
A tour of Canada and the Americas in the summer of 2024 for Scotland saw them pick up four victories from four. They kept that good form up into the Autumn with a further three victories over Fiji, Portugal and a standout result over an in-form Australia side. Their only defeat came against current world champions, South Africa. A successful second half of 2024 has seen the Scots move up to sixth in the world rankings, as they now look to kick on in 2025.
A disappointing fourth place finish in last year’s Six Nations tournament, Scotland will be hoping to improve on last year’s tournament which only saw them pick up two victories, against Wales and England. A shock defeat to an improving Italy side in Rome along with two more losses to both France and Ireland saw Scotland finish in fourth place for the fourth time in the last five tournaments.
Predicted finish – 4th
Wales
Having gone winless in 2024 and currently on a record, 12 match losing streak, with their last win coming in the group stage of the 2023 Rugby World Cup, Wales are looking down the barrel of yet another disappointing campaign. Their poor run of results has also seen them fall out of the top ten in the world rankings as they currently sit 11th, behind Italy and Fiji.
Having not picked up a victory in last years Six Nations tournament, Wales finished bottom of the table for the first time in 21 years, finishing on four points and well adrift of the five other nations. Their first wooden spoon since 2003 was confirmed on the final weekend of the tournament with a narrow loss to Italy in Cardiff.
Wales head coach Warren Gatland has rung the changes going into the 2025 tournament, leaning on experience over youth. Taluape Faletau, Josh Adams, Liam Williams and Daffyd Jenkins all come back into the squad with a number of younger players not selected, including current Gallagher Premiership top try scorer, Max Llewellyn.
Predicted finish – 6th
France
A successful 2024 for Les Blues included a victory over the All Blacks in Paris, a win away in Argentina in the summer, along with further wins over Japan, Uruguay and a second win over Los Pumas in the autumn. With superstar Antione Dupont at the front of everything good about French rugby, France were one of the great entertainers of international rugby in 2024.
Having finished second in last year’s Six Nations campaign, the French will be looking to go one further in 2025. Having picked up three wins in last year’s tournament against Wales, Scotland and England, their most notable result saw Italy claim a famous 13 all draw in Paris which damaged any title ambitions that France had. Along with a loss to eventual winners Ireland, France will be looking for revenge in this season’s campaign.
Predicted finish – 1st
Italy
A mixed bag of results for the Azzurri across their summer and autumn internationals saw them pick up wins over Tonga, Japan and Georgia along with losses to Argentina, New Zealand, and a shock defeat to Samoa.
But an overall improving Italy side had one of their best Six Nations tournaments in 2024. An outstanding draw away in France along with victories over both Scotland and Italy saw them finish 5th in the table, but only two points off second placed France. That win over Wales was their second win in Cardiff in three years and in-turn, meant they wouldn’t finish bottom of the table for the first time since 2015. Italy will hope to reignite some of their best rugby from last year in this year’ s tournament as they look to continue to improve.
Predicted finish – 5th
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