Six Nations 2022: Scotland squad is seriously talented and should be considered genuine title contenders

Gregor Townsend has won more than he’s lost in the Six Nations and is the only Scotland coach who can boast such a record, but the next step is to turn the current squad’s undoubted potential into something more tangible.

This is the 23rd edition of the championship in its current format which was expanded to include Italy in 2000. Excluding the ‘newcomers’, Scotland are the only team not to have won the title.

The last success came in 1999, the final year of the Five Nations, when Townsend was in his prime as a player, scoring a try in each of Scotland’s games. Since then, England have won the Six Nations seven times, Wales six, France five and Ireland four.

Scotland and Italy remain on the outside looking in, noses pressed against the window as the trophy is lifted on Super Saturday.

Scotland captain Stuart Hogg celebrates the last-gasp win over France in Paris in the final match of the 2021 Six Nations. Photo by Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP via Getty Images

With all due respect to the Italians, that is unlikely to change in the immediate future, but for Scotland there is a sense that this is their most talented group since ’99.

Townsend said as much when he named his Six Nations squad earlier this month, so what can we expect to unfold over the next seven weeks in what looks like the most open championship in years?

The returns of supporters will add noise and colour but will also reinvigorate the old cliche of ‘home advantage’. More than half of last season’s games finished in away wins and that is unlikely to be repeated this time around.

France are tournament favourites but Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England are all genuine contenders.

Wales were crowned Guinness Six Nations champions last year after winning four of their five game. (Photo by Ben Evans - Pool/Getty Images)

Townsend thinks his side can “really challenge every team we’ll face this year” but can they do it over the course of the championship? Scotland have never won more than three matches in a Six Nations campaign and never finished higher than third.

Last season was arguably their best under Townsend: they beat England and France away, and Italy at home but were edged out at Murrayfield by Wales, by a single point, and Ireland, by three. To put it another way, Scotland were six points away from a Grand Slam – and yet they ended up fourth. That’s how tough it is and there is still a suspicion that Townsend’s side lack the mongrel edge to truly challenge at the sharp end.

In his four previous tilts at the title as head coach, Townsend has won 10 of 20 games, drawing one and losing nine. He has had the measure of France and England and notched his first win over Wales in the delayed 2020 match in Llanelli. But Ireland remain a thorn in his side – four defeats from four in the Six Nations and an extremely damaging loss at the 2019 World Cup to boot.

Duhan van der Merwe scores the winning try in injury time in Scotland's win over France last year. (Photo by MARTIN BUREAU/AFP via Getty Images)

The Scots head to Dublin on the final weekend of the championship for what is arguably their toughest fixture of the five but they have enough in their locker to suggest they could still be in with a chance of the title on March 19.

Ireland are in imperious form. Their win over the All Blacks in November was the sort of statement result which had coach Andy Farrell in a buoyant mood at last week’s Six Nations launch.

“It makes me laugh when coaches say they want to finish second or third,” Farrell said. “I don’t know anyone who doesn’t want to finish first.”

Most bookmakers have Ireland as second favourites but it is France who have the shortest odds. Fabien Galthie has galvanised Les Bleus since taking over in 2020, guiding them to back-to-back runners-up finishes.

World player of the year Antoine Dupont will captain France in the Six Nations. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images)

A persuasive argument could be made for their being the most entertaining side of the last two years but they have fallen short on both occasions. And it is Scotland who have denied them, winning in Edinburgh in 2020 in the last match before the Covid shutdown and then conjuring up an impossibly dramatic victory in the Stade de France last year when Adam Hastings kept a cool head to play in Duhan van der Merwe for the decisive try in injury time.

But France are building something, with the ultimate aim of lifting the World Cup in Paris on October 28 next year. A Six Nations title before then would do much to boost confidence and in captain Antoine Dupont they possess the world’s best player.

It’s been 12 years since France won the championship, their longest drought since the Second World War, but the ability of flair players like Dupont, Romain Ntamack, Teddy Thomas and Gael Fickou allied to Galthie’s formidable pack suggest the bookmakers aren’t wrong. England and Ireland must travel to the Stade de France this year but Les Bleus’ toughest task might come in Edinburgh on February 26. France have not won a Six Nations match at Murrayfield for eight years.

England, Scotland’s first opponents on Saturday, had a miserable time of it last year, losing to all their Triple Crown rivals in the same championship for the first time since 1976 and finishing fifth.

They have been rejuvenated by an excellent autumn campaign which saw them claim the scalps of South Africa, Australia and Tonga, with young fly-half Marcus Smith flourishing. On the debit side, their build-up to the Six Nations has been clouded by injury. Owen Farrell is out of the entire tournament and Jonny May is likely to follow. Anthony Watson and Manu Tuilagi will both miss the Scotland game – maybe more – and there are doubts around Henry Slade, Joe Marler, Jonny Hill and Courtney Lawes.

Wales, who also have injury issues, begin the defence of their title in Dublin in what is likely to be a ripsnorting start to the tournament. The Welsh sides have been struggling in Europe and the URC but the national side seems to find an extra gear around this time of year. Wayne Pivac had a tough act to follow in Warren Gatland but he delivered last year with the title.

Repeating the trick may not be so easy, particularly when he is definitely without Alun Wyn Jones, Leigh Halfpenny, Ken Owens, Josh Navidi and Justin Tipuric, and could also be denied the services of George North, Dan Lydiate and Taulupe Faletau.

Italy go into the tournament without a win since 2015 when they beat Scotland 22-19 in Edinburgh. It’s a grim statistic, leading to more questions about the Azzurri’s future in the championship. Ben Morel, the Six Nations chief executive, leapt to their defence last week by once again ruling out relegation and promotion, and Italy should get a lift from the appointment of Kieran Crowley as head coach.

The former All Black did good things with Benetton, signing off with the Rainbow Cup triumph, and has packed his squad with players from the Treviso club. Italy finished their autumn campaign with a win over Uruguay but face a daunting start to the Six Nations with France, England and Ireland as their opening three games.

The next two months will provide drama and intrigue, all played out at packed stadiums. There should be much to enjoy.

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