Wales facing a tough tournament

THE Six Nations has always been something to look forward to.

- Nigel Owens

A spot of excitement after the post-Christmas lull. But for those here in Wales, I think it’s fair to say this is very likely to be a hard tournament.I certainly think there’s a little less to look forward to from a Welsh perspective this year. But saying that, although we lost a few games over the autumn, we did beat Japan, and I thought we did play some good rugby at times - and also scored a few very good tries.

So I suppose there is a little smidgen of excitement there to look forward to. If we can continue to build on that, I think there’s some reason for optimism.

But while we're more than capable of playing some good rugby in behind, it’s going to be more about winning the battles on the gainline.

It used to be a big strength for us in years gone by. You only have to look at the sort of players we had back then; the likes of Gethin Jenkins, Adam Jones, Alun Wyn Jones. Big ball carriers.

Faletau, Warburton, Lydiate - we had players who could compete in those collisions and win them, and that's the concern heading into the England game, and indeed Ireland, who tackle well and are strong in the scrum.

At the moment we haven't got the strength up front we used to which, as I mentioned, was arguably the foundation for our previous success in this tournament over the last 10-15 years.