THE Guinness Six Nations.

The competition brings a smile to every rugby enthusiast’s face.

Whether you support the gun-slinging Welsh, the never-say-die Scots, the crusading Italians, the flamboyant French, or the ones we all love to hate: the all-too-often arrogant English, you love this time of year.

For mere mortals, the scandalous cost of the tickets for Ireland’s home games, the bloated hotel accommodation, and the price of a pint in the leafy suburbs of D4 prohibits us from attending the games in person.

The flip-side is you don’t have to spend 80-plus minutes next to someone pretending they know what they are talking about!

Anyway, there is little we can do about the price of the tickets because no matter how much the IRFU increase the price, the demand will always outstrip the supply; the corporate world will make sure of that.

This year’s competition is going to be fascinating because it is of course a World Cup year and Ireland have the undesirable label of being the top-ranked team in the world.

PRESSURE

Andy Farrell and his players are fully deserving of this accolade, but with it comes a very heavy weight of expectation. There are very few teams who can handle it correctly.

Apart from New Zealand, South Africa and, possibly, France, who are crafty enough to manipulate the accolade to their advantage, I can’t think of any other side who are capable of making the number one tag have their opponents shivering in their boots.

You can be guaranteed that Warren Gatland will be mentioning it in the various team meetings to inspire his players. When Gatland was re-employed by the Welsh Rugby Union in December, it raised many an eyebrow and the man who was probably shocked the most was Gatland himself.

Gatland’s first term as Wales’s coach lasted 12 years and 124 Tests, in which time the team won three Grand Slams, a Six Nations title, and finished fourth at the 2011 and 2019 World Cups.

The New Zealander now finds himself on a very lucrative four-year deal as the head coach that will see him hold the reins right through to the 2027 World Cup in Australia.

Welsh rugby is in a complete mess with their four provincial sides all reporting massive financial losses which means they can’t plan any long-term strategies and holding on to their top players is going to be a very hard task for them.

The Scarlets, Ospreys, Dragons, and Cardiff, cannot nail down an agreement for a long-term financial model, meaning player recruitment and contracting is currently frozen.

On top of that, none of the four look like they will qualify for the Champions Cup next year because of their poor performances in the United Rugby Championship. For good measure, Steve Phillips, the chief executive of the Welsh Rugby Union, had to resign two weeks ago.

I find this very sad because Welsh rugby has contributed so much to the game and it is very depressing to see it crumble away with little or no regard for the history, joy, and moments of magic that it has brought us throughout the decades.

FRESH

The Welsh team selection for this game was always going to be interesting and with the World Cup only around the corner you might have thought that Gatland would have gone for fresh blood with a view to building a squad that could compete in France, but this is not the case.

When you see names like Leigh Halfpenny 34, Dan Biggar 33, Ken Owens 35, Alun Wyn Jones 37, Justin Tipuric 33 and Taulupe Faletau 33 in their starting 15, it is very clear that Gatland’s immediate goal is to win this game.

However, the Ireland that Gatland once coached against is a very different one today and no matter what tricks he has up his sleeves, he will need some kind of miracle to win.

Unless someone in a green jersey gets their marching orders early on, Ireland will have too much firepower for this aging Welsh squad.