France

Best ever finish: 1st (2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2022, 2025)

Grand slams won: 4 (2002, 2004, 2010, 2022)

last year's finish: 1st

Head coach: Fabian Galthie

Captain: Antoine Dupont

Young player to watch: Theo Attissogbe

Expectation: Win a Grand slam

Prediction: 2nd

In typical French fashion, this Six Nations build-up has been tumultuous. Stars like Penaud, Fickou, Alldritt and Ntamack are all out of the squad. There was also some incredibly sad news surrounding Uini Antonio who has had to retire following a heart attack.

France are fancied by many to end England's good run and take home another 6Nations title. Fabian Galthie has been under significant pressure in recent months and has tried, so far unsuccessfully, to altar France's style of play to align it more with South Africa and England. The squad selection suggests that he may have reversed that decision in order to return to France's more natural style of attacking rugby. Mathieu Jalibert looks set to start at fly-half despite having an up-and-down relationship with Galthie recently. The connection between him and Dupont will be one of the defining elements of this tournament. They are both flair players that always want the ball which makes this a more difficult fit than Dupont and Ntamack. On the other hand, having another play-maker with Dupont could actually open up more space for the scrum-half which is something he didn't get in the autumn. Their new centre partnership is another factor to watch, but there is a reason that each of them has been selected ahead of 98-cap man, Gael Fickou.

Squad

LHP: Cyril Baille, Jean-Baptiste Gros, Rodrigue Neti, Danny Priso

HKR: Maxime Lamothe, Julien Marchand, Peato Mauvaka

THP: Dorian Aldegheri, Regis Montagne, Tevita Tatafu

Lock: Hugo Auradou, Thibaud Flament, Mikael Guillard, Emmanuel Meafou, Tom Staniforth, Cameron Woki

Back row: Paul Boudehent, Francois Cros, Alexandre Fischer, Oscar Jegou, Anthony Jelonch, Temo Matiu, Lenni Nouchi, Charles Ollivon

Scrum-half: Antoine Dupont, Baptiste Serin, Thibault Daubagna

Fly-half: Mattieu Jalibert, Ugo Seunes

Centre: Fabien Brau-Boirie, Nicolas Depoortere, Kalvin Gourgues, Yoram Moefana, Noah Nene

Back 3: Theo Attissogbe, Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Gael Drean, Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang, Gregoire Arfeuil, Romain Buros, Thomas Ramos

Potential 23-man squad

1.Cyril Baille 2.Peato Mauvaka 3.Dorian Aldegheri 4.Thibaud Flament 5.Emmanuel Meafou

6.Francois Cros 7.Oscar Jegou 8.Charles Ollivon 9.Antoine Dupont 10.Mattieu Jalibert

11.Louis Bielle-Biarrey 12.Yoram Meofana 13.Nicolas Depoortere 14.Theo Attissogbe 15.Thomas Ramos

Bench

16.Julien Marchand 17.Jean-Baptiste Gros 18.Regis Montagne 19.Hugo Auradou 

20.Cameron Woki 21.Anthony Jelonch 22.Baptiste Serin 23.Noah Nene