Ireland’s gamekeeper turned poacher

The Six Nations hasn’t compared favourably in terms of quality with the Heineken Cup in recent years.

However, if the first weekend of the 2013 Six Nations is a portent of things to come this spring, the debate is back in the mix again.

We witnessed two extraordinary matches in the Wales-Ireland and Italy-France matches, and if the England-Scotland Calcutta Cup game suffered by comparison, that’s understandable. England looked composed and well organised and I was massively impressed with new first centre Billy Twelvetrees, who has the power to crash it up but also looks like a ball player. With Manu Tuilagi returning from injury in time for Sunday’s clash at the Aviva Stadium, they both will be very hard to contain.