The first rest week of the Guinness Six Nations is over and now the real business returns.
Round Three of the 2019 Championship has thrown up some massive match-ups and we will be your first port of call for all the team news as we get it throughout the week.
The first side to name their team for this weekend will be Jacques Brunel’s France, who kick off Round Three by hosting Scotland in Paris.
It will be an unusually early announcement, 8:30AM on Tuesday morning, when Les Bleus’ 23 is revealed as they aim to maintain a 20-year unbeaten run at home to the Scots.
With Wesley Fofana and Maxime Medard both returning to fitness, expect Brunel to shuffle his deck as France look for a first victory of this year’s Guinness Six Nations.
Gregor Townsend needs his side to bounce back after their Round Two defeat at home to Ireland and the Scotland head coach will announce his team on Thursday morning to take on France.
Townsend will face the press at 11AM on Thursday, so expect his team to land shortly before then – around 10AM GMT.
Greig Laidlaw came through unscathed from Top 14 action this past weekend but Finn Russell, Huw Jones and Stuart Hogg have been ruled out for the clash, so keep your eyes peeled for some alterations.
Eddie Jones’ England are riding high after back-to-back bonus point wins to kick off this year’s Championship.
And the head coach will unveil his team to travel to Cardiff and face Wales in Round Three at 10:30AM on Thursday morning.
Chris Ashton has already been ruled out with a calf strain while Maro Itoje looks unlikely to return in time, will Jones make any more changes to the team that downed France in Le Crunch?
Thursday is always the busiest day for team news in a Championship week and Round Three is no different as Warren Gatland rounds out the three announcements at midday.
After making ten changes to his side as they beat Italy in Rome, Gatland looks likely to re-introduce his big-name stars for the battle of the two remaining unbeaten sides left in the Championship.
Italy and Ireland lock horns in Rome on Sunday, so the Azzurri’s team announcement will not arrive until Friday afternoon.
Conor O’Shea’s matchday 23 will land at 2PM local time, 1PM GMT, as they go looking for a repeat of their famous win over the Irish back in 2013.
Benetton Rugby had a number of internationals return to their fold this weekend as they downed the Scarlets to strengthen their hold on a play-off position in the Guinness PRO14 Conference B.
Will O’Shea be tempted to give those in-form stars a call-up to the starting XV this weekend after back-to-back losses?
Joe Schmidt’s injury concerns look to be lifting at last and his Irish side to face the Azzurri will land around 1PM on Friday.
Both Garry Ringrose and Robbie Henshaw look set to be fit and firing again this weekend, while in the second row Tadhg Beirne also appears to be nearing a return.
Jonathan Sexton has also been declared fit and it will be fascinating to see if Schmidt follows Gatland’s example and rings the changes for the trip to Rome.
