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Rugby: All change for the post-World Cup Six Nations

Six Nations Launch

By Mitch Phillips

LONDON (Reuters) - A post-World Cup Six Nations always feels like something of a fresh start but this year's championship, featuring four new coaches and four new captains, is about as clean a slate as it gets.

Defending champions Wales start the post-Warren Gatland era with Wayne Pivac in charge, Ireland have Andy Farrell, with Johnny Sexton his new captain, France have turned to Fabien Galthie and Charles Ollivon, while Italy have Franco Smith and Luca Bigi.

Gregor Townsend remains in charge of Scotland, but with a new skipper in the shape of Stuart Hogg

Only England, with Eddie Jones and Owen Farrell, have an unchanged double act from last season – but with a major overhaul of Jones’s assistants.

"It is a different feel, teams come out of the World Cup in different states in terms of their cycle so you’re not sure of the stability of teams,” Jones told reporters at the Six Nations launch on Wednesday.

“So the first couple of weeks is quite interesting - you find out where teams are going to go with their new coaches.”

One thing that is unlikely to change much is the importance of getting off to a strong start. Wales looked down and out in Paris in their opener last year but after battling back to win 24-19 they never looked back and marched to a grand slam.

This year they have an easier-looking task at home to Italy – a fixture they have never lost in Cardiff, in the tournament’s opening game on Feb. 1, before travelling to Dublin the following week.

England, on the back of their run to the World Cup final, start favourites to win the title for the first time since 2017 and Jones has kept faith with the bulk of the squad that served him so well in Japan ahead of their tricky opener away to France.

SALARY CAP

Jones has “clear the air” talks planned for his squad later on Wednesday where any grievances about the Saracens salary cap scandal can be aired. The London club are to be automatically relegated from the Premiership for repeated breaches of the cap, upsetting rivals who potentially missed out on titles during Saracens' recent dominance of the English game.

Farrell, who is also the captain of Saracens, said he did not envisage any issues.

"It won't be difficult no, we’re excited to get into camp and get into the rugby," he said.

Paris is usually the place for internecine rugby warfare but Galthie effectively taking over the reins of the team during the World Cup appears to have quelled the latest French revolution.

He has shaken things up by selecting a fledgling squad, seemingly chosen with one eye squarely on the 2023 World Cup which will be hosted by France.

Many of those youngsters have already tasted success in back-to-back under-20 World Cups, although this year’s Six Nations tournament may come a little early in their development.

Since their Grand Slam of 2010, France have an appalling tournament record, finishing in the top half only twice.

It feels an equally new start for Ireland in the wake of Joe Schmidt’s departure and a 2019 that fell horribly flat after the highs of the previous couple of seasons.

Their home record is remarkable, however, with only two defeats in Dublin in the last seven tournaments, and they will expect to continue that run at home to Scotland first up.

Scotland went to the World Cup with high hopes but came home chastened after defeats by Ireland and Japan. Townsend is determined to stick with his ambitious approach but could hardly face a tougher start.

The Scots have won in Dublin once this century, but they look positively buoyant relative to Italy.

Conor O'Shea departed without being able to make any impact on results and Smith has his work cut out to improve a lamentable record of one victory in the last six years.

(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Pritha Sarkar)