Mark Rigby, Chief Executive of Lambert Smith Hampton and a former Captain of London Wasps looks back at the tournament’s opening weekend, and forward to this weekend’s matches:

"From where I was sitting, the opening weekend of this year’s championship was all about one man – Jonny Wilkinson....."

Without having pulled on an England shirt since the World Cup Final in 2003 – and with a scant 40 minutes or so of club rugby since his latest injury comeback – it was as though he had never been away. He kicked, ran, passed, organised and motivated England to victory in one of the best Calcutta Cups in years. Well done Brian Ashton and welcome back Jonny!

Watching the games from the LSH Ski Challenge in Courmayeur, in Italy, we were only a couple of miles the other side of Mont Blanc from the border. The gap in class between the two teams, however, was massive and France have put down a signal that, despite being written off for treating the tournament as a World Cup warm up, they mean business. They are involved in this weekend’s biggest and most intriguing fixture, travelling to Croke Park to meet an Ireland side buoyed by their opening match success in Cardiff – no mean feat. The Ireland v France game will measure this year’s favourites against last year’s champions and, in my opinion, has the potential to set the tournament alight.

At Murrayfield, Scotland will host a Wales team desperate to score a win and, no doubt, feeling somewhat aggrieved that their positive play against Ireland resulted in nothing. With two wounded teams going head to head, I reckon it’s going to be brutal.

As for my tip for the tournament – England – I’m feeling positive. It might just be that with Jonny and Jason back, 2007 may not be such a bad year for England supporters after all.

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