Six Nations 2019: All is fair in love and war as Eddie Jones and Joe Schmidt start to up the ante

All six coaches were on their best behaviour at Wednesday’s Six Nations launch, but underneath the surface Jones, Schmidt et al are ready to pull the pin on their numerous verbal ‘grenades’

Rory Best just didn’t see it coming. Preoccupied with trying to avert the crisis developing right through the middle of the board, the Ireland captain has spotted that Farrell is potentially two moves away from victory.

Little does he know that Farrell has lulled the Ireland captain into a trap, one he cannot get out of. As soon as Farrell moves to the exact same channel that Best has just filled, he realises the error of his ways, but there is nothing he can do. The game is done, the battle is won. The war? Well that doesn’t start for another week.

No one expected the biggest talking point from the Six Nations launch to be the Connect4 match between the England and Ireland captains, but then such was the well-natured behaviour of the six coaches on the day, you wondered where all the mind-games and extra edge has gone.

In one room, Warren Gatland was discussing his dinner date with Eddie Jones the night before, the two ‘rivals’ enjoying a curry together while discussing all things England, Wales, New Zealand and the Lions. “We’re competitors but colleagues. It’s no different to players having a beer together after a game,” said Jones. “It’s nice to share each other’s company now and then and have a chat about the game. If you have been in the game a while, you are concerned about where the game is going. You want it to get better, and sometimes there’s a chance to have a chat about that.”

In another, Joe Schmidt was revealing his great respect for Antipodean rival Jones and how he rather enjoys all the “banter” that comes with him. Even Conor O’Shea, the Irishman coaching Italy that normally has something cheeky to say and a trick up his sleeve, was fairly well behaved.

Heads were being scratched.

But it’s worth remembering that this is not Test week. This is the chance for the six coaches and captains to have a catch-up, a brief chit-chat to see how Christmas went, and then to wave goodbye and a “see you in a few weeks” to go with it.

Now the tension begins to rise as the ante goes up. Training camps click into gear for England and Ireland, who have departed for Portugal’s Algarve for some warm weather training just 15 minutes apart from each other that could provide one or two meetings slightly more intense than Wednesday’s Connect4 thriller – which Farrell clinched convincingly 2-0 – over the next week. By the time they reach the Aviva Stadium a week on Saturday, both sides will be ready to rip shreds off each in what is remarkably the first time that they have met on the opening weekend since 2000.

This was very much the calm before the storm, and the hard work for Jones, Schmidt, Gatland, O’Shea, Gregor Townsend and Jacques Brunel. Jones must figure out a winning combination against and Ireland side that have got the better of him the last two times they have met, while Schmidt has been dealt a few brutal injuries this week in losing Tadhg Beirne for the games with England and Scotland and Iain Henderson for potentially the entire tournament.

Gatland has similar issues on his hands, with Adam Beard, Jake Ball and Cory Hill all concerns in the second row that led to a plea to Alun Wyn Jones alongside him of “please don’t get injured!”

They all have plenty of work to do before the action begins, and this time next week when the squads are announced and everything is on the line, expect a number of coaches to throw the “grenades” that Jones had promised.

The Six Nations coaches pose with the trophy ahead of the 2019 championship (AFP/Getty)

But that’s all part of the factors that make this championship stand out among all the rest. There is not an annual rugby tournament in the world that can touch the Six Nations, and that was summed up perfectly by Jones himself, who arrived a doubter and will leave, be it this year or in 2021 when his contract is due to expire, as one of the converted.

Last year Jones saw his contract extended until 2021 to help with the transitional process after the Rugby World Cup, but Gatland and Schmidt will be heading for the exits with Wales and Ireland respectively while O’Shea and Brunel could conceivably join them. Will that change how this tournament plays out? Not according to Jones.

“No-one is thinking about ‘This is going to be his last game, what are we going to do special for him’,” Jones said. “We’re talking about the most highly motivated, most professional players in Europe playing for their countries. They don’t need special things to want to be better.

“There’s a sign out there saying it’s the greatest tournament in the world. Four years ago I wouldn’t have said that but having been involved in it there’s nothing like this tournament. The intensity, the contest, how much it means to people, it’s a real honour to be involved in it.

Jones and Gatland enjoyed dinner together ahead of the Six Nations launch (Getty)

“I might be in it for another 10 years, who knows? I don’t know what I’m going to do. That’s not a concern for me or the team.”

One thing that all six coaches were in agreement about was that while winning the Six Nations – and potentially the Grand Slam with that – is of course the aim, it will have little-to-no impact on the World Cup. This championship is a playground for the six best teams in Europe to slog it out over two months in an effort to call themselves the best in the Northern Hemisphere. There are rivalries built on history, war, politics and, now, Brexit. There are friendly rivalries, frosty ones and rivalries that are yet to develop but are sitting there, simmering just below the surface ready to explode into life over the next two months.

And the one thing that could genuinely be taken from the Six Nations launch day beyond Farrell’s talent for Connect 4? None of them would want to change it for the world.