2024 Six Nations squads announced

We have now had all six squads named for this year's Six Nations, which means now is the time to really get thinking about your Superbru predictions and particularly your Superbru Fantasy team as the squad lists are now fully up to date with the necessary players.

The 2024 Six Nations begins on Friday 2nd February with a huge fixture between the two teams that are widely considered to be favourites - France and Ireland.

Here are each of the squads that have been named for the championship.

England

Steve Borthwick has named a 36-man squad made up of 20 forwards and 16 backs. Jamie George will captain the side, which includes 7 uncapped players: Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, Chandler Cunningham-South, Ethan Roots, Oscar Beard, Fraser Dingwall, Tom Roebuck and Fin Smith.



Kyle Sinckler and Billy Vunipola are among the notable players to have been overlooked, while Owen Farrell made himself unavailable as he takes a break from the international game. Courtney Lawes, Ben Youngs, Jonny May and Mako Vunipola have retired from internationals following last year's World Cup.

France

Fabien Galthie has selected Gregory Alldritt as the captain of his 34-man squad which includes 20 forwards and 14 backs. Six of the players are uncapped: Matthias Halagahu, Emmanuel Meafou, Esteban Abadie, Nicolas Depoortère, Antoine Gibert and Nolann Le Garrec.



The headline news is that usual captain and star player Antoine Dupont is unavailable due to his focus on Sevens ahead of this year's Olympics in Paris. First choice fly-half Romain Ntamack remains sidelined with an ACL issue. Jean-Baptiste Gros and Thibaud Flament are also injured.

Ireland

There aren't many surprises from Andy Farrell as he's picked a strong looking squad with Ireland aiming to defend their 2023 crown. Now that Johnny Sexton has retired, the big question mark is over who will make the 10 jersey their own. Peter O'Mahony has taken over the captaincy.



In addition to the above 34-man squad, Farrell has named three 'training additions' who will join the group in a pre-tournament camp. Those three are Oli Jager, Thomas Ahern and Sam Prendergast.

Italy

This tournament is the beginning of a new era for Italy as they start life under Argentina head coach Gonzalo Quesada following Kieran Crowley's post-World Cup departure. Quesada, who has previously coached the Jaguares and most recently Stade Francais, has named a 34-man squad which includes a first ever call-up for Exeter Chiefs' Ross Vintcent.



All of the backs are capped players but in addition to Vintcent, there are four other uncapped forwards. Benetton's Alessandro Izekor is an international rookie while three of the six props are brand new faces - Matteo Nocera, Luca Rizzoli and Mirco Spagnolo.

Scotland

Gregor Townsend has settled on a fairly familiar 39-man Scotland squad that also includes 4 exciting new uncapped names: Arron Reed, Harry Paterson, Will Hurd and Alec Hepburn. Hepburn qualifies through his father but has 6 England caps, the last of which was in 2018.



Hamish Watson is perhaps the most notable omission, and Townsend is also yet to select a captain for this tournament. Jamie Ritchie had that role at the World Cup, and though Townsend has admitted he's one of the favourites to retain the captaincy he's decided to wait until after this weekend's European club fixtures to make a final decision.

Wales

Wales were the first to name a squad for this tournament... eventually. Yesterday was a dramatic afternoon as their scheduled 12pm announcement didn't happen, with a shock update from Louis Rees-Zammit posted around half an hour later before the full squad was eventually unveiled.

Rees Zammit has opted to leave rugby with immediate effect and join the NFL International Player Pathway as he hopes to earn a place on an NFL roster in 2024. This is of course disappointing news for both Wales and Gloucester, given the quality of the 22-year old winger.

With so much coverage of that LRZ news, the very inexperienced squad that Warren Gatland has named has gone under the radar somewhat. 21-year old Lock Dafydd Jenkins has been selected as captain, 13 of the 34 players have never played in a Six Nations match before, and five are uncapped: Alex Mann, Mackenzie Martin, Evan Lloyd, Archie Griffin and Cameron Winnett.



Now that the squads have been named, who do you see as this year's champions? Let us know in the comments.