New faces keep eye on the big picture

They may be the new boys in the Six Nations coaching club but for Philippe Saint-André, Jacques Brunel and Stuart Lancaster that is where the similarities end.

As the incoming coaches of France, Italy and England respectively stare into their first championships at the helm of national teams, they embark on three very different missions from diverse starting points and with markedly varied expectations.

For Saint-André, a French try-scoring hero on the field during the 1990s, there is the task of shedding the lunatic elements of the previous regime of Marc Lievremont while building on his scarcely believable feat of taking Les Bleus to the brink of World Cup triumph.