Add Category
The Rugby World Cup kicks off in just six short months — a mere blink of an eye in the world of international rugby union, especially given the northern hemisphere has just concluded its last competitive fixtures before the world's third-biggest sporting tournament begins.
The Six Nations has come and gone, with Ireland earning their fourth-ever Grand Slam and Italy handed yet another wooden spoon.
The rugby union dynamic has changed significantly over the past few months, with Eddie Jones being sacked by England and riding back home to lead the Wallabies, while Wales have gone back to the future to see if Warren Gatland can lead them back to some semblance of respectability after a disastrous couple of years.
However, some things have remained the same, with France, Ireland and Scotland all underlining their strength with some solid performances that see them ideally placed to challenge later this year.
In theory, it's too early to read too much into form with an entire season of club rugby to go before teams lock horns in France — but why let that stop the speculation?
Here's what we learned from Six Nations 2023.
Ireland roaring into the history books?
Prior to Ireland's brilliant victory over Scotland at Murrayfield in the penultimate round of competition, plenty were calling this team Ireland's best ever.
The stats back it up.
Ireland averaged four ties per match and ended defending champion and World Cup hosts France's 14-game unbeaten run on their way to a 10-game winning streak of their own.
That run includes back-to-back wins over the All Blacks in New Zealand, by the way, and has the Irish sitting on top of the world rankings.
The Grand Slam title has Ireland listed among the key four favourites to lift the William Webb Ellis cup in Paris on October 28.
The only time a northern hemisphere team won the World Cup — England in 2003 — it warmed up with a Grand Slam triumph first.
With depth always a question for Ireland behind their generational talent skipper Johnny Sexton, Ireland was able to handle some key injuries throughout the tournament too.
There can still be some questions though.
Nerves did threaten to paralyse the Irish against England in the finale, where even an uber-passionate Lansdowne Road crowd could not rouse it as much as a first-half red card to Freddy Steward did.
Ireland was, somewhat incredibly, the only team not to be shown a card in the tournament too — and given how ruthless top teams are at exploiting numerical advantages and the likelihood of that run continuing to be diminishingly small, how the Irish adapt to that adversity in a perilously tough Pool B may well be the difference.
Of course, for Ireland, getting out of the group is just one hurdle.
The Irish have never progressed past the quarter-finals at any of the previous nine World Cups.
France is still French
What of the hosts?
A laborious first-up victory over an Italian team desperate to play with French-style flair was alarming — as was defeat in Dublin to a raucous Ireland side in an early grand slam decider.
In that game, France attempted its tried and tested broken-field style and, in the end, slightly overdid it, making numerous errors and offering possession back to Ireland.
Yet, there is an argument to say it was hard done in that defeat.
Ireland's crucial second try, scored by James Lowe in the first half, was allowed to stand despite footage appearing to clearly show the former Māori All-Black-turned-Irishman's foot-dragging in touch.
It might not have made any difference, but there is a sense that when things do go against the French they still don't react quite as well as they could.
Player-for-player, there is an argument that France is better than anyone in the world for skill level, led by half-back pairing Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack, who can have proven adept at unleashing the full power of France's mighty impressive back line.
Will consistency be an issue?
Aside from first-up opponents New Zealand, Pool A contains Italy, Uruguay and Namibia, meaning progression should be a doddle.
In theory, that is.
Scotland is still better than anyone gives them credit for
Despite a perilously shallow professional player pool that has seen Scotland scour the world to find eligible suitors for squad positions like an international version of the Batchelor, Scotland has once again shown its class in this year's tournament.
Coach Gregor Townsend has got this Scotland team purring at the moment, securing wins over England and Wales and falling to narrow defeats to France in Paris and Ireland at home.
It's been in defeat that Scotland has arguably looked so impressive in this tournament, mixing it with the best and giving an account of itself that should have the top teams concerned later this year.
For 55 minutes against Ireland at Murrayfield, Scotland was more than an equal to their world number one-ranked visitors before fading after a multitude of changes were made.
Does that mean Scotland doesn't have the depth to win RWC2023? Probably — although the Blair Kinghorn conundrum at fly half suggests there is more depth than some might expect at playmaker, even if Finn Russell has shown he should remain the first choice.
Former Junior Wallaby Sione Tuipulotu has impressed at centre this campaign, joining the likes of Duhan van der Merwe as powerhouse options in the back line.
Incredibly though, the world's number five-ranked team is almost considered likely to go out in the group stages.
The desperately unfortunate Scots have been paired in a group with Ireland and defending champions South Africa in France, as well as Tonga and Romania.
Only two teams get out of the group, and it could come down to the final group match against the Irish at the Stade de France as to who will get through.
England has work to do
This may be the understatement of the tournament.
There's no easy fix for England either, who made the gamble to remove Eddie Jones and now looks like a team trying to rediscover itself.
Central to the discourse is the debate over who should start at 10 — mercurial Harlequins star Marcus Smith or the tried and tested national skipper Owen Farrell.
It was a conundrum that Jones wrestled with in his dying days as England coach, but now it's Steve Borthwick's problem, and he does not appear to know which way to turn.
There was a significant outcry with Smith being released from England camp to play for Quins between rounds three and four, with George Ford drafted in to cover.
Smith proceeded to play a blinder for Quins in that game — at Twickenham, no less — and was parachuted straight back into the side to face France, with Farrell dropped to the bench.
England's subsequent horror show could not have come at a worse time, as France turned on the style in a big way to record their biggest-ever win at Twickenham.
Against Ireland, Smith was again dropped as Farrell came back in at fly half and proceeded to kick possession away at every opportunity.
That might be the way international rugby has trended in recent years, but when France, Ireland, Scotland and even Italy have shown the merits of running the ball more to prise open well-drilled defences, there has to be an argument that Smith is the way forward for England.
Instead, England has resorted to its tried and tested method of using its big ball-carrying forwards to sledgehammer their way through those previously-noted defences.
England scored 13 tries and won just one try-scoring bonus point in the tournament.
England should have enough to get out of a group containing Japan, Argentina, Samoa and Chile.
But once the top teams come calling, the lack of inventiveness will see Borthwick's troops come unstuck.
Wales has a lot of work to do
Warren Gatland was bought back into the fray to help conjure a miracle recovery from a terrible two years or so for Welsh Rugby.
With huge disruption in the boardroom and looming threats of strike action ahead of the match against England going down to the wire, it was a far-from-happy Welsh camp.
Gatland claimed that improvements had been made by the time of Wales' 13-point defeat in Paris, but in truth, it was an incredibly low bar to rise from.
Wales squad is blessed with experience but plagued by age, with over 1,000 caps and four centurions in the run-on side in Paris.
Gatland is having to make decisions on new players on the fly, making 28 changes over the course of the five matches that bought just one win and a fifth-placed finish for the second year in a row.
Wales is a lowly ninth in the world rankings, having just leapt ahead of Japan this week.
The saving grace for Wales is that Pool C, on paper, is far from the strongest at this year's World Cup.
The bad news is that there are banana skins all over the place in the form of Georgia (ranked 12) and Fiji (13), along with the Eddie Jones-led Wallabies (7) and Portugal (16).
Italy has embraced the chaos — and it's working
It's working to a point, at least.
Italy lives in a constant state of having to justify its place at Europe's top table — quite often for good reason.
This season marks the 18th time since 2000 that Italy has finished bottom of the Six Nations table after another winless campaign, but for the first time in years, there does appear to be light at the end of the tunnel.
Italy might have hoped to pick up a couple of wins in this year's competition to help cement in place the progress that saw the Azzurri score a first-ever victory over the Wallabies last spring.
That has not happened, but the Italians have become fun to watch — no longer stinking out the joint in defeat but playing an entertaining brand of rugby that has heaped the pressure back on their opponents.
Italy was in danger of causing an upset in Rome on the very first weekend, leading France after an hour before falling just short.
Italy got to within five points of Scotland at Murrayfield and sensed an upset until Blair Kinghorn finished off a stunning move to help give Scotland breathing space.
The Italians are very much third favourites to get out of Pool A behind New Zealand and France, but they won't lack for self-belief and will hope to at least make things awkward for the two favourites.