flanker Bergamasco set to miss Six Nations

Flanker Mauro Bergamasco of Italy's can miss the whole six nation after undergoing shoulder surgery on Thursday.

Earlier this month after the defeat from Argentina The Stade Francais player was ruled out although he tried to be fit for last Saturday's loss to Australia, doctors realised an operation was the only option.

Bergamasco participation in any of the games is in serious doubt as the Italian rugby federation said in a statement Bergamasco was likely to return in around four months and with the Six Nations finishing on March 19.

Shane Williams Inclusion To England Team Is Doubtful

Shane Williams is struggling because he of his injury which he faced in the match against South Africa, so his inclusion to Six Nations is now doubtful

According to a reports a surgery will take place and he will not be able to play rugby for at least 10 weeks.

This injury will lead out him of the Ospreys' remaining Heineken Cup pool matches and the focus will be on his return in the Six Nations opener against England in Cardiff on February 4.

"It's a big blow," conceded Wales coach Warren Gatland, who has handed Newport Gwent Dragons wing Aled Brew the number 11 shirt against Fiji on Friday nigh

"We saw what Shane did when he was on in the first half against South Africa.
"He created a try, he got himself involved and I thought the mix between the wings (Williams and George North) was fantastic. He's a loss for us.

"The silver lining to this perhaps is that he gets a chance to do some training, to freshen up over the next few months, and fingers crossed he might be available for part of the Six Nations and then hopefully again for next year."

Six Nations Rugby Preview and Team News : England v New Zealand All

Started England’s last international against the All Blacks a year ago,captain Lewis Moody and winger Mark Cueto only survive from the 15.

Moody, who has just recovered from an injury to lead the team out at Twickenham but the Bath flanker has dismissed worries about his match fitness.

He will skipper an England team that has five players making their Twickenham debuts on the international stage.

Chris Ashton, Ben Foden, Shontayne Hape, Courtney Laws and Ben Youngs are all being thrown in at the deep end, while prop Andrew Sheridan dons England colours against the new Tri-Nations champions after a 20-month injury nightmare.

Despite a surprise defeat to Australia in their final warm-up match ahead of their autumn tour in Hong Kong,All Blacks are still on a high and should readily work out a game plan to scupper England’s likely ploy to stifle their powerful backs.

Moody’s tussle with the equally resilient Richie McCaw should be one of the highlights of the clash but the tourists should have too much all-round strength for an England side still effectively displaying the ‘Under Construction’ banner.

throws shadow over Ryan Hones’ future with Wales

YAN Jones had a huge question mark placed against his future as captain of Wales following the Ospreys chose to leave out of their starting line for their first big match of the Heineken Cup this afternoon at Toulon noon.Jones lost to international team-mate Jonathan Thomas in the battle for the No. 8 jersey at the Stade Felix Mayol, who spoke with Thomas for the role during the absence of injury to Jones indeed impressive this season.The Ospreys will mention that the absence mentioned above - caused by a knee problem - as the reason for their choice at the base of the scrum, but with Jones having made his comeback two weeks ago to replace Aironi cons, it will be bitterly disappointed to be named on the bench.And the decision casts significant doubt on whether he will continue as captain of Wales for the autumn international series when he can not win selection for the largest meetings at regional level.This was a "taste for the No. 8 position, there is no guarantee Jones will stay in his crib of choice for the rest of the Ospreys' Heineken Thomas red-letter matches, including the next one is next Friday when they welcome London Irish in the Liberty Stadium.

Six Nations Championship: Borthwick dropped from England rugby squad

Steve Borthwick former's captain, who led England in the last Six Nations championship, has been left out of the 32 man elite squad for next season announced by national team manager Martin Johnson on Thursday.
The 30 year old Saracens lock captained the side in 20 Tests over two years until injury forced him to hand over to Lewis Moody for the final Six Nations game against France and the subsequent summer tour down under.
To the second string Saxons squad he is noe demoted where he is joined by wing Ugo Monye, centre Mathew Tait, lock Louis Deacon and hooker Lee Mears who are also discarded from the elite.
The uncapped Gloucester lock Dave Attwood takes Borthwick's place alongside the other three locks - Tom Palmer, Courtney Lawes and the evergreen 36 year old Simon Shaw.
Johnson said, "Leaving Steve Borthwick out was a very hard decision". "He's done a fantastic job for England over the last couple of years and it's the most difficult call we've had to make.
"It is very tough on Steve but it goes to show the depth of talent we've got in that area.
"We want to build on what we've done this summer and a southern hemisphere tour that was hugely beneficial and a actually positive experience for the pair.
"We were able to give lots of opportunities to players and expose them to a high level of rugby."
Leicester scrum half Ben Youngs and prop Dan Cole have been officially included among the elite after establishing themselves in the Test team during the tour of Australia and New Zealand.
Wasps' uncapped centre Dominic Waldouck has also been included at the expense of Tait along with Leeds' South African born flanker Hendre Fourie and Gloucester prop Paul Doran Jones.
Having taken over the captaincy from Borthwick, leading England to a 21-20 victory in the second Test against Australia in Sydney last month, Moody now looks likely to spearhead England's World Cup campaign in New Zealand next year.

Andy Robinson says Six Nations is more important to Scotland than World Cup

It seems there has been a radical rethink at Murrayfield. In place of the system where everything revolved in four-year cycles around the Rugby World Cup, Andy Robinson, the Scotland head coach, has made it clear that the RBS Six Nations Championship is now his over-riding priority, and that even the autumn internationals play a greater role in his day-to-day thinking than the global challenge.

As part of that, he is looking at the summer tours as development projects, which is why he asked for — and got — a schedule for the rest of the decade that gives his team only one match a year against a southern hemisphere big gun, plus a couple of matches against lower-ranked opponents. Robinson is, however, also hoping that the organisers will be able to reinstate midweek matches during most of the trips, giving his squad five or six games against opponents ranging from provincial representatives to teams such as the Springboks, All Blacks or Wallabies.

“The key for me is Scotland getting the right number of matches against the southern hemisphere teams in the autumn and we have got that, playing two of them each year. The other important thing is to focus on the Six Nations. Those games are where we really need to improve and start winning regularly,” he said yesterday.

He is busy finalising the side that will take on Japan A next week — mainly players from the squad preparing to face Argentina next month but most of the Glasgow players are likely to be rested and he will have to call some in from the Scotland A team preparing for the IRB Nations Cup in Romania — but he was also keen to look

“I’m really focusing on the Six Nations and autumn internationals,” he said. “When we are there, the tours will be important, but not to the detriment of the other matches. This stage of the season you can lose the likes of Euan Murray, players who have had a hard season and need to rest or tidy up injuries. We are lucky this year that we don’t have many players who need to rest.

“The Six Nations is a tournament that we play every year. We will deal with the World Cup when we come to it, but it is only once every four years, we will peak towards the Six Nations every year and we are going to be judged on how we perform in it.”

There had been fears among some supporters that Scotland’s failure to land a major tour to a top-tier nation — along the lines of the three-match series that England, Ireland, France and Wales will all be embarking on during the next decade — was a demonstration of Scotland’s falling stock as a world power in rugby. In fact, it is all part the masterplan devised by Robinson and Graham Lowe, the performance director, to ensure a steady progression with the limited resources at their disposal.

“I’m really keen for the players to experience not just playing top-tier Test matches but to experience playing in places like Japan and America. That can help us grow as a team and develop that winning habit. At the end of this schedule we can look at where we are in terms of things like rankings and how many players we have developed and we will have a handle on what direction we will then want to go,” he added.

“Scotland have never played three-Test series against anybody, we do not think that is the right thing for us to do at the moment. We cannot let it get away from success in the Six Nations and the autumn Tests. The summer Tests are a building block.”

Friday start for Six Nations

England and Wales will kick-off their 2011 RBS Six Nations Championship campaigns with a Friday night match in Cardiff.
The two rivals will kick-off next year's tournament at the Millennium Stadium on Friday February 4.
Two previous games have been played on Friday evening, with Wales losing 21-16 to France in Paris in 2009 and Les Bleus winning the fixture in Cardiff this year.
However this will be the first time that the championship has started on a Friday.
Defending champions France will kick-off their challenge on Saturday February 5 against Scotland, with a home game against Wales to round off their campaign on Saturday March 19.
England have three successive home games against Italy (February 12), France (February 26) and Scotland (March 13), before they finish up with a trip to Ireland.
Scotland host Wales and Ireland in rounds two and three and finish with another home game against Italy.
Wales visit Italy in round three and host Ireland two weeks later.

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