👀 Six Nations Round 1 Preview

⏰ The Round 1 deadline is Thursday evening ahead of France v Ireland.

🇫🇷 Uini Atonio withdraws from squad and retires from rugby for health reasons. Charles Ollivon starts in the second row, Antoine Dupont returns for his first international game since his injury last year.

🍀 Tadhg Furlong & James Lowe do not make the matchday 23; Hugo Keenan has been sent home with a fractured finger. Jacob Stockdale starts, and Finlay Bealham makes the bench.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Tommy Freeman starts at centre, Henry Arundell starts on the wing. Henry Pollock & Marcus Smith are on the bench.

🇮🇹 Edoardo Todaro is out of the Italy squad with a knee injury.

⌛️ Wales, Italy & Scotland yet to name teams.

⏮️ All the top performers from 2025 6N fantasy.

💡 Check out everything you need to know about the game from Fantasy Rugby Geek.

To help you see which way these games might go, we’ve checked the Rugby4Cast algorithm.

💡 These predictions are designed to tell you which teams might be scoring points with the ball (tries, assists, metres made), but also without the ball (tackles, breakdown steals).

🇫🇷 France 21 - 16 Ireland ☘️

The algorithm is predicting a tight opener in Paris, with the hosts edging it. However, Ireland’s recent injury concerns —and recent issues at scrum time— could well tip the scales further in France’s favour.

Last year’s result: Ireland 27–42 France
Last years POTM: Antoine Dupont

🇮🇹 Italy 21 - 24 Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Even tighter in Rome… The Oval Office expects a Scotland win, but Italy are in good form after beating Australia in the Autumn.

Last year’s result: Scotland 31–19 Italy
Last years POTM: Huw Jones

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England 41 - 7 Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

This one looks to be going England’s way. After a record defeat for Wales in Cardiff last year, they will be looking to bounce back, but it just feels that England will be too strong with some key names missing for the visitors.

Last year’s result: Wales 21–68 England
Last years POTM: Ben Curry

Must Have’s

Blair Kinghorn 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (14★), last year’s top scorer in fantasy 6N. Italy up first. Nuff said.

It’s hard to look past Dupont as your scrum half for the whole tournament, but Alex Mitchell 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (11★) presents a massive opportunity against Wales. With the amount of box kicks that England make, and with the new points rule for kicks retained, Mitchell is sure to score highly. He was also joint top for assists (4) in the 6N 2025.

British and Irish Lion Huw Jones 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (14★) was POTM in the return fixture last year, and is always a threat outside Russell and Tuipulotu.

Ben Earl 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (15★) is a metre-maker. In 6N 2025, he recorded 67 carries and made 269 metres— the most of any forward. By far. He also topped the charts for post-contact metres. And although we are unlikely to see him here again on Saturday… he also covers centre 👀

Honourable mention for Bielle-Biarrey, but for Round 1 our French pick in the Back Three is Thomas Ramos 🇫🇷 (16★). Goal kicker, covers 10, and nearly guaranteed to play the full 80… why would you not have him?

Budget Picks & Differentials

Can’t quite make your salary cap stretch, or just want some differential picks?

Fraser Dingwall 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (9★) is looking pretty attractive next to his Northampton Saints club mate against a struggling Wales team.

Alex Coles 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (9★) is a good punt. Line out option, great player with the ball for club. The only drawback is that he is likely to make way for Maro Itoje after 50 minutes.

Oscar Jegou 🇫🇷 (9★) starts for France, having been used in a similar way to Pollock throughout 2025.

Dorian Aldegheri 🇫🇷 (6★) to free up funds elsewhere is an excellent shout against an Irish pack that has struggled of late.

Here’s how we’re shaping up for Round 1. There may still be some changes before the deadline, given that 3 of the teams are yet to be announced!

💡 You can still swap out any players who haven’t played yet up until their match kicks off. Once France v Ireland has started, you can no longer change those players, but you can keep swapping players from the other four teams until each of their games begins.

Round 1 Captain

We’ve gone for Ben Earl 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (15★). He has been one of England’s standout players for a couple of years now. With Wales at home, it seems to be the right time. If he plays the full 80, we’re hoping he can get on the score sheet more than once. Remember, forwards’ tries are worth more (10 → 15)!

Other good captain picks: Huw Jones, Manny Feyi-Weboso, Henry Arundell, Thomas Ramos, Blair Kinghorn, Finn Russell. You can never go wrong with Antoine Dupont or Louis Bielle-Biarrey.

Round 1 Super Sub

Who else? It’s Henry Pollock 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (13★). Came off the bench in the reverse fixture last year to score two tries on debut. Since then, he’s gone from strength to strength.

Other good super subs: Marcus Smith, Kalvin Gourgues, Peato Mauvaka (or someone on the Scotland bench!).

💡 P.S. If you really want to get into the stats, visit our new website and look at how many points we predict each player scoring (it’s in a beta phase still, so don’t put all your faith in it yet… use it as a tool to find your best team).

Good luck and see you next for a Round 1 Recap early next week!