England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France and Italy go head to head to be crowned kings of northern hemisphere rugby. Copy link. twitter. facebook. whatsapp. Ireland and France have enhanced their status as Six Nations favourites after impressive victories in the opening round. France humbled Wales in Paris on the opening night. Scotland then held off a typically spirited Italy before Ireland came from behind to comfortably beat England on Saturday afternoon.

Ireland are the reigning champions, their only defeat last year coming at the hands of England at Twickenham. This year, the Irish have already beaten Steve Borthwick’s men in Dublin and also host France, which is a huge advantage in their hunt for three Six Nations titles in a row. There is an element of jeopardy, however, due to head coach Andy Farrell’s unavailability. Farrell has handed over the Irish reins, on an interim basis, to Simon Easterby so that he can focus on planning for the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour of Australia.

There are two consecutive weekends of Six Nations action (Jan 31-Feb 1, Feb 8-9), then a week’s break, another weekend of fixtures (Feb 22-23), another week-long break and then the final two weekends of games run consecutively (Mar 8-9, Mar 15). (All times GMT). The BBC and ITV are once again sharing coverage in the UK, with S4C offering Welsh language options. France Television is the home of the Championship for French fans. RTE and Virgin Media are again covering the games in Ireland. In Italy, Sky Italia continues its coverage of the Championship.

Radio coverage of the whole championship is available on BBC Radio 5 Live. This may yet be the last year that every match of the Six Nations is shown on free-to-air terrestrial television in the UK. The existing broadcast deal with ITV and the BBC only runs to the end of this year’s tournament. It is understood that tournament organisers are considering bids from pay-TV broadcasters like TNT Sports or Sky Sports. A move behind a paywall became a possibility when the government opted not to continue to designate the Six Nations as a “crown jewel” event. Concerns have been raised about the negative impact of the Six Nations going behind the paywall might have on the game.

Tickets went on sale last year. If any are still available, they are for sale via the host nation for each fixtures. It was redesigned at the end of last year and launched amid much mockery. Supporters have variously compared the new version to the Mars logo, a Looney Tunes advert and Microsoft Word Art. Forwards: Fin Baxter, Ollie Chessum, Arthur Clark, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Chandler Cunningham-South, Ben Curry, Tom Curry, Theo Dan, Ben Earl, Ellis Genge, Joe Heyes, Ted Hill, Maro Itoje (c), Curtis Langdon, George Martin, Asher Opoku-Fordjour, Henry Pollock, Bevan Rodd, Will Stuart, Tom Willis.

Backs: Oscar Beard, Elliot Daly, Fraser Dingwall, George Ford, Tommy Freeman, Ollie Lawrence, Alex Mitchell, Cadan Murley, Raffi Quirke, Harry Randall, Tom Roebuck, Henry Slade, Ollie Sleightholme, Fin Smith, Marcus Smith, Ben Spencer, Freddie Steward. Forwards: Esteban Abadie, Dorian Aldegheri, Gregory Alldritt, Uini Atonio, Hugo Auradou, Cyril Baille, Giorgi Beria, Paul Boudehent, Joshua Brennan, Georges-Henri Colombe, Francois Cros, Thibaud Flament, Marko Gazzotti, Jean-Baptiste Gros, Mickaël Guillard, Matthias Halagahu, Oscar Jegou, Maxime Lamothe, Julien Marchand, Peato Mauvaka, Emmanuel Meafou, Dany Priso, Rabah Slimani, Romain Taofifénua.

Backs: Theo Attissogbe, Pierre-Louis Barassi, Leo Barre, Nicolas Depoortere, Gael Drean, Antoine Dupont (c), Antoine Frisch, Emilien Gailleton, Matthieu Jalibert, Nolann le Garrec, Maxime Lucu, Yoram Moefana, Noah Nene, Romain Ntamack, Damien Penaud, Thomas Ramos, Killian Tixeront, Gabin Villiere. Forwards: Lorenzo Cannone, Niccolo Cannone, Riccardo Favretto, Simone Ferrari, Danilo Fischetti, Alessandro Izekor, Dino Lamb, Michele Lamaro, Gianmarco Lucchesi, Sebastian Negri, Giacomo Nicotera, Marco Ricconi, Luca Rizzoli, Federico Ruzza, Ross Vintcent, Giosue Zilocchi, Manuel Zuliani.

Backs: Tommaso Allan, Juan Ignacio Brex, Ange Capuozzo, Matt Gallagher, Alessandro Garbisi, Paolo Garbisi, Simone Gesi, Monty Ioane, Leonardo Marin, Tommaso Menoncello, Martin Page-Relo, Jacopo Trulla, Stephen Varney. Forwards: Ryan Baird, Finlay Bealham, Tadhg Beirne, Jack Boyle, Thomas Clarkson, Jack Conan, Caelan Doris (c), Tadhg Furlong, Cian Healy, Iain Henderson, Rob Herring, Cormac Izuchukwu, Rónan Kelleher, Gus McCarthy, Joe McCarthy, Peter O’Mahony, Andrew Porter, Cian Prendergast, James Ryan, Dan Sheehan, Josh van der Flier.

Backs: Bundee Aki, Caolin Blade, Jack Crowley, Ciaran Frawley, Jamison Gibson-Park, Mack Hansen, Robbie Henshaw, Hugo Keenan, James Lowe, Conor Murray, Calvin Nash, Jimmy O’Brien, Jamie Osborne, Sam Prendergast, Garry Ringrose. Forwards: Ewan Ashman, Josh Bayliss, Jamie Bhatti, Gregor Brown, Dave Cherry, Luke Crosbie, Rory Darge (cc), Jack Dempsey, Matt Fagerson, Zander Fagerson, Grant Gilchrist, Jonny Gray, Patrick Harrison, Will Hurd, Jack Mann, D’Arcy Rae, Dylan Richardson, Jamie Ritchie, Pierre Schoeman, Rory Sutherland, Marshall Sykes.