England embrace ‘winner-takes-all’ Six Nations showdown with France

Boxers can train with one hand tied behind their back, snooker players can practise with smaller pockets and golfers can hit heavier balls on the range but they’d all claim that nothing really prepares you for a true test in the white heat of battle.

It explains why the eyes of England’s head coach Simon Middleton light up when discussing his side’s grand slam decider in France on Saturday, when they will put a 22-match winning run on the line against the last team to beat them in the Six Nations, four years ago.

For all that England speak of squad rotation in the early rounds, of improving quarter-by-quarter throughout each match, of using internal pressure to maintain their high standards, the three-times defending champions are evidently aching for the kind of challenge that few teams pose. France are one of those and the fixture takes on far greater significance with the delayed World Cup to be held this autumn in New Zealand – arguably the only other team on a similar level.

There is a certain irony that his England men’s counterpart, Eddie Jones, is criticised for prioritising the World Cup and treating the Six Nations as second-rate whereas Middleton is happy to admit that his side are not the finished article and, “that’s the very last thing we want to be at this point in time”, but perhaps it is an unfair comparison considering this is the first time the annual championship has had a title sponsor and there is still no prize money on offer.

Saturday’s fixture must therefore be seen in the context of the World Cup and while you could put the mortgage on both sides making the knockout stages, the fact England and France are in the same pool adds further spice. “It is winner takes all which is literally what