6 Talking Points: The 2025 Six Nations captains set their sights on glory

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The 2025 Men’s Guinness Six Nations will be upon is in just one day’s time, as France and Wales kick off the competition in the Stade de France tomorrow night. The excitement is palpable for the tournament to get underway in Paris, with the captains of all six competing countries laying down their respective gauntlets for the next five rounds of action.

It was a star-studded ensemble in the Italian capital of Rome, as six of the competition’s biggest names met up for a press conference in the ‘Eternal City’. The guest list read as a ‘who’s who’ of European rugby, as Antoine Dupont, Maro Itoje, Michele Lamaro, Caelan Doris, Jac Morgan and Rory Darge all had their say for the upcoming competition. In this article, we’ll revisit the immense media session and showcase the biggest talking points, as all six of the captains set out their plans for Six Nations glory.

Find your local Greene King and settle in for the 2025 Six Nations!

CAELAN DORIS – IRELAND

We’ll begin with the defending Men’s Six Nations champions, as Ireland set out to make history in this year’s competition. Never before has a side won three consecutive titles, since the tournament expanded to include Italy in 2000. Ireland have the chance to achieve just that this year, and captain Caelan Doris laid out the plan of action for what could be an unforgettable campaign for the men in green.

However, Ireland had a mixed bag of an Autumn Nations Series, with a home defeat to the All Blacks, and unconvincing wins over Argentina and Australia denting their previously revered aura. Add into the mix the absence of Andy Farrell, as the regular head coach now takes up his role with the British & Irish Lions, and it could well prove to be a trickier campaign for Simon Easterby’s side, if they want to complete a famous hat-trick of title triumphs.

CAELAN DORIS: “It’s about our evolution and improving the awareness that all these teams around us are right up there. It’s so competitive, that is the great thing about this competition, each game, you can’t take anything for granted. For us, England, at home, first off, so it’s hard to look beyond that for now. But, in terms of our preparation and our mindset generally, it’s one of needing to evolve, needing to improve individually, collectively. So it’s an exciting prospect.”

“Simon’s (Easterby) been unbelievable for us over the last number of years, he’s taken on both the line-out initially, and then moved into a defensive role, and he’s got a tonne of respect amongst the players in how he leads our defense and in how he is as a person. The one on one time he puts in the players too,. so a lot of what you look for in a head coach has been there in Simon over the last number of years.

“I think we’ve lost in Faz, (Andy Farrell) he’s obviously been a massive figure for us, but we’ve had the likes of Jonny (Sexton) we’ve lost in the past as well. Instead of any one person trying to fill the void, it’s a shared responsibility. So it should be equal, and we’ll take a little bit of that on too.”

ANTOINE DUPONT – FRANCE

Leading the chasing pack to take the Six Nations title away from Irish hands, France enter this year’s tournament looking like the team to beat. Hot off the back of an incredible Autumn Nations Series, as they ended November as the only unbeaten Northern Hemisphere side, Fabien Galthie’s men are on a real surge of momentum in search of their first title since 2022.

The famous Autumn win over the All Blacks has set the tone for Les Bleus, with expectations high in France that a returning Dupont can spearhead a silverware winning campaign. However, key injuries to Charles Ollivon, Gael Fickou and Damien Penaud throw spanners into the works for Galthie’s Galacticos, as despite having Dupont back in the fold, France are certainly not a ‘one man team’. Dupont missed the 2024 Six Nations as he was preparing for the Olympic Sevens, and shared his excitement to be back in the mix.

ANTOINE DUPONT: “Yeah, I waited a lot, it was not easy to watch the games from in front of the TV last year. But now I am very excited to come back in to this beautiful tournament, and I hope I’m ready for the first game. I think we’ve got a lot of pressure from the start, and from the other team’s here. I think that we have the potential to win it, but we are five games away, and it will be a big challenge for us, and it will be very important to get it right.”

“Yes, as we said, we always want more time to train now, but certainly we’re pretty comfortable to have two weeks before the first game, especially with one weekend off. It’s more for us, and it gives us some more time to be the best as we can for the first game.”

“As I said, it was not easy to watch the games, the result last year was not what we wanted. But as I said again, although the team was supportive of my sevens project, I think even if we were not on our best level, the result was pretty good. We finished second in the tournament (2024 Six Nations) we had a good tournament. And we had a good series in November to keep momentum from this series, to try to keep aligned for the Six Nations.”

“Honestly, I just focus on my current objective.I think I have enough tests to deal with every day, to be focused, to be the best as I can every day. Try to improve my game. We have a lot of expectations at Toulouse this year and with the French team well, So I just focus on that.”

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