5 Bold Predictions for World Rugby in 2016
The year of 2016 will see rugby sevens make its bow as an Olympic sport and also heralds a new era for many of the world's top sides.
Gone from the international stage are giants of the game such as Richie McCaw, Dan Carter, Thierry Dusautoir, Ma'a Nonu and others.
England and France are under new coaching regimes and must start to turn their fortunes around. In Super Rugby, Japan and Argentina throw teams into the ring as the global game continues to expand.
Let's make some outlandish predictions for what the next 12 months might bring.
1. Argentina Will Beat New Zealand
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This year’s Rugby Championship will see Argentina secure a win over the only side they have yet to defeat in the tournament: New Zealand.
The bulk of the Pumas’ side will have had a season playing together in the Super Rugby competition and will have learned a lot more about the players they will face.
When the All Blacks, shorn of the leadership of McCaw, Carter, Nonu and Conrad Smith, roll into Buenos Aires, a pumped up Pumas side will be straining at the leash to have a crack at a new-look side and will edge them out in a thunderous encounter.
2. Steffon Armitage Will Play for France
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After demanding too much money from potential suitors to move back to England and fight for a place in Eddie Jones’ side, we predict Steffon Armitage will throw his lot in with Les Bleus and make his debut for France.
Armitage’s potential switch of nationality was hinted at in 2014 by the Telegraph's Steve James, and now the retirement of Thierry Dusautoir opens up a slot in the French back row.
With Louis Picamoles also leaving for Northampton at the end of the season, Guy Noves needs to remodel that unit, and he could turn to the spurned Englishman as one of Europe’s best No. 7s to galvanise his side on their summer tour.
3. Saracens Will Do the Double
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Not since Wasps lifted the old Heineken Cup in 2007 has an English club been crowned kings of Europe.
Saracens look capable of ending that drought this season.
Champions Toulon are fallible and have shown as much both in their pool and in the Top 14 so far this season.
Saracens, despite the loss of Paul Gustard from their coaching staff, have enough resolve to absorb that blow and keep rolling forward. They will also go unbeaten in the Premiership and retain that trophy.
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4. Team GB Will Win the Olympic 7s
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Sevens makes its debut in the Olympics in 2016, with Rio de Janeiro playing host to the Games.
We are not sure yet whether the top nations will flood their sides with the stars of the 15-a-side game or the mainstays of the sevens circuit will remain first choice.
But the newly formed Team GB, under the tutelage of England coach Simon Amor, has the quality to beat all-comers, and it will become the first sevens Olympic gold medalists.
5. Scotland Will Win the Six Nations
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Scotland, burning with the injustice that dumped them out of the Rugby World Cup, will rampage through the Six Nations.
Vern Cotter's side showed themselves capable of mixing it with the best at the World Cup, and having been denied a semi-final berth in such controversial fashion, they will want to right that wrong by winning the old championship.
They start at home against England, who will have had little time to get to grips with the new patterns Eddie Jones will want to embed, and they will catch the Red Rose brigade cold, setting them off on a run that will propel them to a first title since 1999.
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