The competition will start on February 3 but long-term injuries are already forcing Wales especially to plan for a reshuffled side, notably to its backrow.
They open their 2018 Six Nations against Scotland on that day but although it’s a home game, Wales would have taken note of the outstanding performances of their opponents against the world champion All Blacks and a week later against Australia.
Such was the high felt by the Scots last month after many miserable years in the competition and also in Tests against the best teams from the southern hemisphere that they wished the Six Nations could come sooner for them to be able to ride on the momentum of a brilliant November.
After outstanding centre Jonathan Davies was ruled out after the Australia game in mid-November for possibly six months with a foot injury, backrower and captain Sam Warburton joined the list with surgery to the knee. Earlier in the year the player who also captained the Lions on tour in New Zealand in June and July had surgery on the neck. He too will miss the entire Six Nations competition which ends on March 17.
If that was not bad enough, Wales recently lost first-choice Tonga-born No. 8 Taulupe Faletau with knee ligament damage. He is expected to be out for 12 to 16 weeks.
Coach Warren Gatland must now be praying hard that Justin Tipuric and Ross Moriarty will return early enough, also from injury, for them to have decent game time in club rugby before joining training with the national side.
Not only that, there has been more pressure lately for Gatland to produce better results after being in charge for 10 years. A poor Six Nations may force the hands of the game’s administrators in Wales to look for a replacement, mindful of the World Cup in only two years’ time.
The other team that is hoping for a quick recovery by one of its star forwards is England, where lock or backrower Maro Itoje is out with a damaged jaw which needed two metal plates to be inserted.
Itoje’s quick return is also being looked forward to by his club Saracens which is going through its worst spell in something like 14 years, already losing six games in a row, the most recent a trouncing of 46-14 by French club Clermont in a European Champions Cup game, a competition Saracens won last season.
In New Zealand, All Blacks No. 8 and captain Kieran Read is due for surgery this weekend on a prolapsed lumbar disc, an injury which forced him to miss their last game to Wales in Cardiff on November 25.
He is expected to be out of the game for about four months, which means he will miss the early part of Super Rugby which starts on February 17 and with the regular season ending on May 25 to make way for the June Tests in New Zealand that kick off on June 9.
This injury should be a timely wake-up call for the All Blacks coaches who have not put in a place a specialist No. 8 as the 32-year-old Read’s understudy, although the backrowers in this year’s squad are capable of deputising to an extent.
South Africa delays Coetzee sacking
Over in South Africa, the expected dismissal of Allister Coetzee as Springboks coach did not happen around this time as anticipated. Instead SA Rugby has confirmed that any decision will be made only in the New Year when the union takes a look at plans for all national teams.
Coetzee won only 11 of the 25 Tests under him in two years, giving him a winning percentage of only 44 per cent compared to the target of 65 set by SA Rugby.
The money is still on new director of rugby Rassie Erasmus taking over, with him calling the shots from the background and leaving the frontline work to his assistants.
In a rather peculiar move, Erasmus is however expected to have full control over team selections and game plans.