Ireland's Six Nations was the right blend of flaws & positives

The 2022 Six Nations lived up to all expectations.

Most of us anticipated the favourites, France, would go all the way and they did so in style against England in Paris on Saturday night.

We finally witnessed an Italian win, and it was a classy one at that, away from home against Wales who struggled without a host of injured, experienced players.

Ange Capuozzo will rightly grab the headlines, but Paolo Garbisi has been a key player in the Italian resurgence.

England, Scotland, and Wales all struggled for any consistency and form. There's only one more Six Nations campaign between now and the World Cup in 2023 but that's a long time in international rugby, as was proven by South Africa last time round.

Ireland, although eventual runners-up, had a hugely positive spring. Under Farrell, the team has built on a massively successful autumn campaign and the momentum is well and truly with them.

There’s still a lot of rugby to be played between now and France 2023 but this has been a key step in the right direction for so many reasons.

In the last World Cup cycle, Ireland won the Six Nations the year before the big tournament. Maybe it had nothing to do with their eventual demise, however, Eddie Jones and his team were able to prepare for Ireland in the next Six Nations because it felt as though Joe Schmidt played a lot of his cards and Ireland were figured out.

It was potentially down to the fact that England came good at the right time too and were second best in the World Cup that year. Both teams timed their peak quite differently.

That’s not to say that Ireland aren’t on the radar of most other teams in world rugby right now, but they are still in the shadows of another northern hemisphere team in France and the rest of the world