The Women’s Six Nations kicked off on Wednesday with the launch at the Hurlingham Club and all six captains are itching to let battle commence for real in ten days’ time.
Like their male counterparts, Ireland are the defending champions and skipper Niamh Briggs was joined on Wednesday by Rachel Taylor from Wales, Sarah Hunter of England, Lisa Martin of Scotland, Gaëlle Mignot of France and Sara Barattin of Italy.
Friday February 5 will be opening night of the Championship as Scotland welcome England to Broadwood Stadium.
Then on Saturday Ireland host Wales at Donnybrook before France and Italy do battle at the Stade Marcel Verchere.
And as the defending champions, Briggs insists Irish standards will not be slipping in 2016.
“Hard work I think has got us to this level, and of course good coaches as well as a bit of luck too,” she said.
“We’ve been so fortunate to have good coaching over the last couple of years and new structures have been put in place for younger girls to start playing the game.
“When you start to win tournaments and put yourselves out there, more and more girls want to start getting involved in that movement.
“For years when Ireland were getting hammered it was difficult to put the game out there, but winning is putting that buzz out there.”
Wales will head to Ireland hoping for a repeat of last week’s 15-5 warm-up victory and skipper Taylor knows previous history counts for little when hostilities open for real.
“It was a bit unusual of course to play Ireland just a couple of weeks before playing them where it counts in the Six Nations, but it gave us a chance to run through some structures and some different combinations as well,” she said.
“Of course it is a massive confidence boost beating them, although we did pick up some injuries which is probably the negative side of playing that close and it will be different playing them away from home.
“But in terms of confidence and intensity we couldn’t have asked for more. It’s exactly what we wanted heading into the tournament.”
England finished fourth in last year’s Women’s Six Nations – their worst-ever finish.
But Hunter is confident that this year there will be vast improvements as they look to reclaim the crown they last held in 2012.
“Obviously since the World Cup in 2014 we’ve been in a path of development,” she said.
“Last year’s Six Nations is evidence of that and the results and performances weren’t what we expected, nor at the standards we set ourselves.
“But there were some real positives in terms of blooding some younger players, getting them experience, so that moving through the summer series and autumn internationals we are now in a place where we can push on.”
Martin and Scotland will welcome the old enemy England full of confidence that last year’s winless campaign is a thing of the past.
“The first thing in our mind is the game against England,” she said.
“One of our things is about developing performance over the course of the Six Nations. The girls are excited to pull on the jersey.
“If we can get a win and gain some momentum then that creates a bit of a buzz in the squad.”
Mignot and France will finish off the weekend against Italy confident that their future looks bright.
“We have to think about the World Cup in 2017, we are going to use the RBS 6 Nations to improve our performance at this tournament and try new players,” she said.
“We have to look at each match one by one and try to win them but the overall objective has to be victory.
“That never changes and we want to make sure that we work well as a team and develop to win matches and the tournament.
“There are great teams here and we have to be at our best for every match.”
But Barattin and Italy, who finished third last season, are not making any sweeping predictions before they get underway.
“One match at a time is the rule, the Championship lasts six weeks so we will see what will happen,” she said.
“Each match counts in and of itself, we start against France and we will see.”
