Catch us if you can

England will have to fly to overtake runaway favourites France and Ireland in the impending Guinness Six Nations, says Owain Jones, as he sizes up the key players who could change their team's fate

- Owain Jones

THE Six Nations is nearly upon us, but it's not just any year. Whisper it in reverential tones: it's a Lions year. Every individual performance from a home-nations player will be scrutinised and dissected with a scalpel, as partisan fans resolutely back their boys to book boarding passes on a flight to Australia in late June. The tour, played on a quadrennial basis, adds a frisson of excitement to this august, 142-year-old tournament.

England, perennial underachievers since their solitary World Cup win in 2003, with one Grand Slam in 2016, are once again in a period of transition, with a new captain in the princely form of Maro Itoje. The Saracen has been backed to galvanise a mis-firing side and coach Steve Borthwick's men will be buoyed by the return of Alex Mitchell at scrum-half, coupled with crowd-favourite Marcus Smith, who is expected to sizzle from either fly-half or full-back. Realistically, there is much work to do to catch runaway favourites France and Ireland.

Les Bleus have the world's best player Antoine Dupont back from his Olympic gold-winning sojourn, believing that anything is possible. With the achingly cool Romain Ntamack also back in the saddle, it is an irresistible combination given a platform to thrive by enforcers Uini Atonio and Emmanuel Meafou—all 45 stone of them.

Expected to wrestle with them for the Grand Slam are Ireland, whose head coach Andy Farrell is on Lions duty, leaving his deputy Simon Easterby tasked with the unenviable challenge of matching sky-high Irish expectations.

The dark horses must be Scotland, who haven't won a tournament since 1999, but who boast a settled side and a sprinkling of stardust with Finn Russell, Duhan van der Merwe and Huw Jones presenting a bonny triumvirate. If they can get over their Ireland hex, it could be their year.