France face their trickier biennial Six Nations itinerary in oddly numbered years, with England in Twickenham and Ireland in the Aviva Stadium. Of their six titles since the expansion to the Six Nations, France have won only one championship in odd years.

France captain Antoine Dupont said Toulouse's thrashing of Leicester in the Champions Cup was the perfect warm-up for the Six Nations.

Dupont is one of 13 Toulouse players included in Fabien Galthie’s 42-man France squad for the Six Nations, which begin on Jan 31. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Two returning players and French teams' results in Europe put Les Bleus in good heart for the Six Nations despite some injury concerns.

Following the Six Nations squad announcements and with the action closing in fast, our focus turns to those players set to miss part or in some cases all of the Championship.

Then the Australian TV tennis commentator Tony Jones recorded a few sentences of on screen banter in front of a group of Djokovic’s Serbian flag-waving supporters. Djokovic is a national treasure to the Serbian people and they support their hero with a passion that, to the uneducated viewer, far outweighs the importance of a game of tennis.

Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou, who were investigated for rape in Argentina before the case was dismissed last month, were both named Wednesday in France's 42-man squad for the Six Nations.

Antoine Dupont is certainly back. I know, he made his return in the November internationals and there was an all-time classic game versus New Zealand, but the Six Nations is the real return and let me tell you why.

Influential centre Sione Tuipulotu is ruled out of the Six Nations because of the pectoral injury he picked up in training.

Next up in our set of previews ahead of the Six Nations we examine the prospects of last fifth-placed finishers, Gonzalo Quesada's Italy.

The final auditions for the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour to Australia will take place over the coming weeks.

Steve Borthwick's squad are preparing for a seismic championship opener against title-holders Ireland in Dublin on February 1 without the benefit of momentum.