Five new captains give Six Nations fresh feel

LONDON : A post-Rugby World Cup Six Nations always has something of a reset feel about it but this year's championship, featuring five new captains, a new coach and missing four icons of the sport, feels even more like the start of the next four-year cycle.

Jamie George (England), Dafydd Jenkins (Wales), Peter O’Mahony (Ireland), Gregory Alldritt (France) and joint captains Finn Russell and Rory Darge (Scotland) will don armbands next month, with Italy's Michele Lamaro the only man left standing.

The competition will also feel slightly different without Alun-Wyn Jones, Johnny Sexton, Owen Farrell and Antoine Dupont, though the Frenchman's absence is temporary as he switches to Sevens ahead of the Paris Olympics in August.

Cap centurions Stuart Hogg, Dan Biggar and Courtney Lawes have also called it a day, while Louis Rees-Zammit has left the sport altogether to try his hand at American football.

There is more stability on the coaching front, with Gonzalo Quesada, in for Kieran Crowley in Italy, the only new face.

The changes, alongside the relative easing of pressure on coaches no longer operating under the pressure of a looming World Cup, should, in theory, invigorate the competition.

France enter as favourites and many observers consider the title will be decided before four of the teams have even taken to the field as the French host 2023 Grand Slam winners Ireland in a blockbuster opening night in Marseille on Friday Feb. 2.

France are playing their three home matches around the country as the Stade de France is out of commission for Olympic preparation but, as anyone who was in Marseille during the World Cup can attest, heading to the Velodrome will hardly be a disadvantage.

The teams' clash in Dublin in 2023, when Ireland