Ireland got their Six Nations campaign off to a winning start against Italy on Saturday. The Irish Spirit is looking to dampen Barbarian pride, as the combined might of The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland look to stun the Invitation only elite players of the Barbarians. As far as underdogs go, Ireland must be one of the strongest teams to ever be considered. They boast a cabinet of eleven Six Nation Championships and have even ranked 3rd in the IRB World Rankings. This clash of titans is set to be one of the most exhilarating games of the year.

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Phil Godman will miss the next six months of club and international rugby action after sustaining knee ligament damage in training. The Edinburgh and Scotland stand-off has torn the anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, in his right knee.

Italy takes on Ireland in their opening 2011 Six Nations Championship match. The Six Nations Championship, known before 2000 as the Five Nations Championship, is an annual international rugby union competition involving six European sides: England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The Six Nations Championship is the successor to the Five Nations and the Home Nations Championship, which was the first international rugby union tournament in the Northern Hemisphere. The winners of the Six Nations are seen as being the European Champions. The event is currently sponsored by the Royal Bank of Scotland. Ireland are the current Grand Slam title holders, for the first time since 1948, having won the competition in 2009 by beating all other teams, and winning the Triple Crown by beating England, Scotland and Wales.

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Italian Rugby really came to prominence in 2000 when it was added to the Five Nations, creating the Six Nations. Originally on the end of some heavy defeats, the side has grown in competitiveness, recorded a fourth place finish in 2007, and even in defeat, lop-sided losses are becoming far less frequent. Italy is ranked eleventh in the world by the IRB as of 21 June 2010.

Italy has also competed at every Rugby World Cup since the first tournament in 1987, but has to progress beyond the first round. Their best showing thus far has been in 2003 and 2007 where they managed two wins during the pool stages.

Ireland Rugby epresents the island of Ireland in rugby union and competes annually in the Six Nations Championship and every four years in the Rugby World Cup, where they have been eliminated at the quarter-final stage in all but two competitions (1999 and 2007). Ireland is also one of the four unions which make up the British and Irish Lions - players eligible to play for Ireland are also eligible for the Lions.

The Six Nations Championship held every year in February and March is Ireland's only annual tournament. It is contested against England, France, Italy, Scotland and Wales. Ireland was a member of the inaugural Home Nations in 1883 with France and Italy joining later to form the Five and Six Nations respectively. Ireland won their first championship in 1894, winning the Triple Crown also. Ireland's first Grand Slam occurred in the 1948 season and their second in the 2009 season. In total Ireland have been champions on eleven occasions.

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Rugby will benefit from seeing Gavin Henson back playing regular rugby, according to Lions and England legend Mike Burton.

Former prop Burton, one of union’s top agents but who doesn’t represent Henson, believes the controversial Wales international making his comeback after 21 months out for the Barbarians against South Africa on December 4 alongside some of the world’s top players is just what’s needed for the centre.

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Australia skipper Rocky Elsom and team-mate Matt Giteau, plus Wales star Mike Phillips and New Zealand lock Chris Jack, have already been signed up for the Twickenham encounter.

We can reveal Australia scrum-half Will Genia and winger Drew Mitchell will also be in the Baa-Baa’s squad, along with a raft of All Blacks aces, which could include Dan Carter and Richie McCaw.

Henson is down to play but would be knocked out if he has an extended run on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing programme, which he is currently taking part in.

The 31-times capped Henson has not played since March 2009 after suffering a succession of injuries and opting to go on indefinite unpaid leave from the Ospreys.

But, with their permission, the 28-year-old accepted the invitation from the Barbarians to take on World Cup holders South Africa at English rugby’s headquarters.

Burton revealed Henson was eager to accept the chance to appear and speculated it could lead to him returning to the Ospreys’ fold – if the player’s fears of dressing room unrest can be overcome.

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Rugby coach Rob Moffat has warned his team not to become pre-occupied with containing Cardiff's newly signed Scotland standoff Dan Parks when the teams meet in the Welsh capital on Saturday.

Serial Six Nations man-of-the-match winner Parks looms large over Edinburgh's attempt to post a remarkable fourth successive Magners League win at Cardiff but Moffat insists it is important not to target an individual so as to leave gaps for others.

"We're not the sort of team that puts too much emphasis on one player but it is important we know what Dan Parks can do," he said.

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Paterson has played just 80 minutes of rugby since suffering that setback – 40 minutes in each of Edinburgh's recent warm-up matches against Bath and London Irish. However, Moffat said he had no doubts whatsoever about the fitness of the 32-year-old full-back whose career had been relatively free of injuries until this year.

"He's a master at putting teams under pressure and what we have to do is put him under pressure.

"It is, after all, his first game for a new club and it comes against another Scottish team. "Having said that I have a lot of respect for the way he has developed his game in the past year."

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Ireland V Italy Hospitality

As nice as it can sometimes be to meet up with familiar faces at the start of a new term, Edinburgh's players might struggle to summon much enthusiasm for a reunion with Dan Parks as they look ahead to their match against Cardiff on Saturday.

Parks, the Scotland fly-half who moved from Glasgow to Wales during the close season, is expected to start in the playmaker's role for his new club, a selection that will surely rekindle painful memories for a few of the Scottish players as they set out on another Magners League campaign.

It was Parks, after all, who did much to derail Edinburgh's title aspirations last season. Over the course of the festive-season Scottish derbies, he delivered two masterclasses in game control, performances that brought comfortable wins for Glasgow and which also moved him back into contention for the Scotland fly-half shirt in which he subsequently delivered an outstanding series of Six Nations displays.

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Yet according to Edinburgh Coach Rob Moffat, inside knowledge works both ways, and what Parks knows about his players may be outweighed by what they know about him.

"The players here know Dan Parks really well," said Moffat firmly after naming his side for the match at the Cardiff City Stadium.

"They know the strengths of his game and the relative weaknesses he may have. It probably helps you more than it hinders you.

"We fully respect Dan for what he can do and what he's done against us in the past. His game has moved on and developed in the past year, he's played well at international level, and we know how well he can dominate a game."

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Even if Parks does not start, there will certainly be one world class goalkicker on the pitch as Chris Paterson makes his return to competitive action in the city where his season came to an abrupt halt six months ago when he sustained a serious kidney injury in Scotland's loss to Wales at the Millennium Stadium, the match in which he won his 100th international cap.

Paterson has played just 80 minutes of rugby since suffering that setback – 40 minutes in each of Edinburgh's recent warm-up matches against Bath and London Irish. However, Moffat said he had no doubts whatsoever about the fitness of the 32-year-old full-back whose career had been relatively free of injuries until this year.

A year ago, Jones was readying himself for another season at Selkirk, but his form over the season brought the offer of a contract with Edinburgh and his performances against Bath and London Irish – he scored two tries against the latter – have now been rewarded with a place in the starting line-up on Saturday.

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If nothing else the 2010 Six Nations Championship will break new ground on the musical front. In their wisdom, the organisers have commissioned an official anthem, cunningly entitled Six Together, to give the tournament – ahem – a "new sonic identity". The idea is to combine a Welsh harp, Irish pipes, Scottish bagpipes, a French accordion, an Italian mandolin and an English cathedral choir on the same record, a concept which could easily broaden the definition of Eurotrash. Come back Max Boyce, Harry Lauder and Pavarotti, all is forgiven.

It is too late now but Bryan Ferry's version of Let's Stick Together, or Tom Jones's Delilah, would have been more appropriate. What is the Six Nations if not a collective, cross-border celebration of history, fraternity and late-night karaoke? If it has a traditional backing track it is the sound of raucous cheering drifting from the pubs of Rose Street and Baggot Street and gales of laughter on matchday trains. I remember staying in a guest house close to Lansdowne Road and discussing the afternoon's game with the landlady. Her son would be there, she said, although he did not have a ticket. "Just you wait and see," she said, winking. Sure enough, an hour prior to kick-off, an ambulance drew up outside the front door. Into the back jumped yer man, who promptly lay down on a stretcher and covered himself up with a blanket. Within seconds the ambulance had disappeared around the corner to be ushered straight into the ground. The Irish are truly a resourceful people, economic downturn or not.

Which is another good reason why Brian O'Driscoll's side may just be worth backing to collect a second title to add to the long-awaited triumph of 2009, their first grand slam since 1948. Hang around long enough for an ambulance and the chances of two arriving improve. To win consecutive Six Nations slams, however, is about more than mere good fortune or the law of averages. England have achieved the feat twice since the Great War, Wales have not managed it for a century and Scotland, Ireland and Italy are still waiting. Only France in 1997 and 1998 have cracked the code in the professional era and both of those successes were in the old Five Nations.

What people always forget is the tournament's X-factor: the ceaseless undertow of ancient rivalry. No one likes an uppity neighbour, as Wales discovered last season.

"There's more pressure on defending champions and we found that last year," said Warren Gatland, the Wales coach who used to be in charge of Ireland. "Everyone targets you as the game to win. I wouldn't normally have expected France to be doing a lap of honour in Paris, having beaten Wales. Ireland will go in as favourites but they've got two tough games in England and France and our meetings with them are really close. On the plus side, they've got two teams playing well in Europe at the moment, a lot of experience and a lot of confidence."

Ireland also have a coach, Declan Kidney, who knows more about the psychology behind sustained success than most. Under Kidney, Munster developed from perennial nearly-men into ruthless champions. If some of the players involved are long in the tooth – John Hayes is about to become the first man to play 50 Six Nations games – the mentality has been absorbed by the next generation. Talk to the likes of Rob Kearney and Jamie Heaslip and they will tell you, not cockily but matter‑of‑fact, that they expect to win every game. Winning is a habit and Ireland are disinclined to kick it, particularly with O'Driscoll at the helm. "We're owed nothing in this Six Nations" he said. "You don't retain anything, you give it back and then you try and win it again. We need to start from scratch. It will be the same attitude we've had for the past 10 years. You try and build into a competition, you don't win it in the first couple of weeks. That's how you lose it."


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