It says everything about the fractured nature of this season’s Six Nations championship that Wales could well be celebrating a Triple Crown success before France take to the field in Murrayfield for their second game of the tournament.

SO much physical and mental energy goes into preparing for an international test match that to have it called off as you are literally about to leave the dressing room must be emotionally draining.

For the first time in 12 years Ireland returned from Paris undefeated in the Six Nations but not in the circumstances they would have wished.

1 The mental challenge

To dwell too long over the legitimacy or otherwise of the penalty awarded against Stephen Ferris in the last play of Ireland’s Six Nations defeat to Wales on Sunday is to miss the point.

THIS defeat feels every bit asbad as Wellington even if the consequences are not quite as drastic.

1 Can Declan Kidney turn the tactical tide on Warren Gatland?

It doesn’t seem long ago but it’s more than a decade all the same. Paul O’Connell, raw and big-boned, was 21 when I first set eyes on him. It wasn’t long before I wanted to throttle him.

There is a strange sense of Groundhog Day about Ireland’s opening two fixtures in this season’s RBS Six Nations Championship.

IT MUST have been a rather chastened English contingent that arrived for their first get together under Stuart Lancaster at West Park rugby club in Leeds on Monday morning in preparation for the Six Nations championship after a calamitous weekend for their clubs in the Heineken Cup.