International rugby returns in 2025 with the Six Nations kicking off at the end of January.
Before the action gets underway, we take a closer look at all the squads ahead of rugby’s greatest championship.
2025 Six Nations squadsAhead of the Six Nations, England head coach Steve Borthwick has made a change in captaincy with Maro Itoje taking over the armband from Jamie George.
Meanwhile, Antoine Dupont will skipper France this year after missing the 2024 Six Nations as he turned his attention to the Olympic Games which culminated in a gold medal.
Michele Lamaro is expected to continue as Italy’s captain. Caelan Doris will be eager to lead Ireland to a hat-trick of titles while Jac Morgan will captain Warren Gatland’s Wales team as they look to improve on their Wooden Spoon finish in 2024.
Following the initial team announcements, the squads have been altered with Scotland losing captain Sione Tuipulotu to injury with Finn Russell and Rory Darge now sharing the skipper duties.
Meanwhile, France are sweating over the fitness of Louis Bielle-Biarrey and have made further alternations with Anthony Jelonch ruled out.
Borthwick has also brought in five players for his first training week.
The changes in the squads are reflected below.
EnglandForwards: Fin Baxter, Ollie Chessum, Arthur Clark, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Chandler Cunningham-South, Ben Curry, Tom Curry, Theo Dan, Ben Earl, Ellis Genge, Joe Heyes, Ted Hill, Maro Itoje (c), Curtis Langdon, George Martin, Asher Opoku-Fordjour, Henry Pollock, Bevan Rodd, Will Stuart, Tom Willis
Backs: Oscar Beard, Elliot Daly, Fraser Dingwall, George Ford, Tommy Freeman, Ollie Lawrence, Alex Mitchell, Cadan Murley, Raffi Quirke, Harry Randall, Tom Roebuck, Henry Slade, Ollie Sleightholme, Fin Smith, Marcus Smith, Ben Spencer, Freddie Steward
England squad: Winners and losers as Steve Borthwick ‘demotes’ Jamie George to ‘ludicrously long list’ but rewards ‘spellbinding form’ for Six Nations
FranceForwards: Esteban Abadie, Dorian Aldegheri, Gregory Alldritt, Uini Atonio, Hugo Auradou, Cyril Baille, Giorgi Beria, Paul Boudehent, Joshua Brennan, Georges-Henri Colombe, Francois Cros, Thibaud Flament, Marko Gazzotti, Jean-Baptiste Gros, Mickaël Guillard, Matthias Halagahu, Oscar Jegou, Maxime Lamothe, Julien Marchand, Peato Mauvaka, Emmanuel Meafou, Dany Priso, Rabah Slimani, Romain Taofifénua
Backs: Theo Attissogbe, Pierre-Louis Barassi, Leo Barre, Nicolas Depoortere, Gael Drean, Antoine Dupont (c), Antoine Frisch, Emilien Gailleton, Matthieu Jalibert, Nolann le Garrec, Maxime Lucu, Yoram Moefana, Noah Nene, Romain Ntamack, Damien Penaud, Thomas Ramos, Killian Tixeront, Gabin Villiere
ItalyForwards: Lorenzo Cannone, Niccolo Cannone, Riccardo Favretto, Simone Ferrari, Danilo Fischetti, Alessandro Izekor, Dino Lamb, Michele Lamaro, Gianmarco Lucchesi, Sebastian Negri, Giacomo Nicotera, Marco Ricconi, Luca Rizzoli, Federico Ruzza, Ross Vintcent, Giosue Zilocchi, Manuel Zuliani
Backs: Tommaso Allan, Juan Ignacio Brex, Ange Capuozzo, Matt Gallagher, Alessandro Garbisi, Paolo Garbisi, Simone Gesi, Monty Ioane, Leonardo Marin, Tommaso Menoncello, Martin Page-Relo, Jacopo Trulla, Stephen Varney
IrelandForwards: Ryan Baird, Finlay Bealham, Tadhg Beirne, Jack Boyle, Thomas Clarkson, Jack Conan, Caelan Doris (c), Tadhg Furlong, Cian Healy, Iain Henderson, Rob Herring, Cormac Izuchukwu, Rónan Kelleher, Gus McCarthy, Joe McCarthy, Peter O’Mahony, Andrew Porter, Cian Prendergast, James Ryan, Dan Sheehan, Josh van der Flier
Backs: Bundee Aki, Caolin Blade, Jack Crowley, Ciaran Frawley, Jamison Gibson-Park, Mack Hansen, Robbie Henshaw, Hugo Keenan, James Lowe, Conor Murray, Calvin Nash, Jimmy O’Brien, Jamie Osborne, Sam Prendergast, Garry Ringrose
Ireland squad: Winners and losers as ‘hardly surprising’ team fails to ‘excite’ while Ulster star’s exclusion is met with ‘bemusement’
ScotlandForwards: Ewan Ashman, Josh Bayliss, Jamie Bhatti, Gregor Brown, Dave Cherry, Luke Crosbie, Rory Darge (cc), Jack Dempsey, Matt Fagerson, Zander Fagerson, Grant Gilchrist, Jonny Gray, Patrick Harrison, Will Hurd, Jack Mann, D’Arcy Rae, Dylan Richardson, Jamie Ritchie, Pierre Schoeman, Rory Sutherland, Marshall Sykes
Backs: Fergus Burke, Matt Currie, Jamie Dobie, Darcy Graham, George Horne, Rory Hutchinson, Huw Jones, Tom Jordan, Blair Kinghorn, Stafford McDowall, Finn Russell (cc), Kyle Rowe, Duhan van der Merwe, Ben White
Sione Tuipulotu OUT! Four potential options to replace the Scotland captain including ‘classy’ Premiership back
WalesForwards: Keiron Assiratti, James Botham, Elliot Dee, Taulupe Faletau, Dafydd Jenkins, WillGriff John, Evan Lloyd, Kemsley Mathias, Jac Morgan, Sam Parry, Tommy Reffell, Will Rowlands, Nicky Smith, Gareth Thomas, Freddie Thomas, Henry Thomas, Christ Tshiunza, Aaron Wainwright, Teddy Williams
Backs: Josh Adams, Ellis Bevan, Dan Edwards, Josh Hathaway, Eddie James, Ellis Mee, Blair Murray, Joe Roberts, Tom Rogers, Ben Thomas, Nick Tompkins, Owen Watkin, Liam Williams, Rhodri Williams, Tomos Williams
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2025-01-15T18:40:50Z