Gerry Thornley's Six Nations Championship Team

Six Nations review: Gerry Thornleyselects his team of the tournament. Unsurprisingly, Grand Slam champions France dominate the selection with nine players while, 12 months on from their own clean sweep, Ireland provide just three of the starting XV.

15 Clement Poitrenaud (France)

Poitrenaud has endured some bad days, injuries and fallow periods, but this campaign marked a return to his thrilling best.

There are few more exciting sights in the game than a French fullback on the counter-attack, and no-one does it better than Monsieur Poitrenaud. By the by, what has happened to messrs Kearney, Byrne and Armitage?

14 Tommy Bowe (Ireland)

Few Lions stars have kept their form, but Bowe is one of them. Under-used in Paris, he was a constant threat whenever he hit the line, timing his runs with the skills of the fullback he initially was, plays heads-up rugby and is a world-class finisher whose rate of chances converted has, if anything, gone up.

13 Brian O’Driscoll (Ireland)

Not as pronounced an influence as last season, but Bastareaud’s influence faded and Hook’s defence was dodgy, while O’Driscoll remained Ireland’s key man in defence and attack.

There’s also the minor matter of him reaching a century of caps.

12 Yannick Jauzion (France)

The veteran’s re-birth gave leadership to the tyros around him and gave Trinh-Duc a regular outlet. With his strength in defence and in contact, and ability to free his hands over the gain line, he remains the fulcrum of the French backline. One caveat: he will be 33 at the time of the next World Cup.

11 Shane Williams (Wales)

Another vintage campaign from the ageless Welsh wing wizard. His try against France was possibly the individual highlight of the tournament, his try against Scotland the crowning glory to that riotous Welsh comeback. Keith Earls, a decade younger, pushed him closest. You gotta love him.

10 Francois Trinh-Duc (France)

An encouraging campaign by Jonathan Sexton, the much maligned Dan Parks delivered in spades, and Stephen Jones remains the best all-rounder of the starting halves. But though he cracked under pressure against England, Trinh-Duc revived the art of the running outhalf, witness the 85 metres he carried against Ireland, and put the width on France’s game.

9 Morgan Parra (France)

In a non-vintage campaign for nines, Tomás O’Leary scaled the greatest heights but was too inconsistent, and in their set-to Parra came out comfortably on top on the day. Cheeky, cocky, clever playmaking scrumhalf who can kick goals for fun, though a la his partner, cracked under pressure last Saturday.

1 Thomas Domingo (France)

Les bleus lose one of the stars of their November series in Fabien Barcella and simply unearth the Clermont pocket dynamo. He wasn’t even a regular club starter a couple of seasons ago but was France’s most destructive scrummager and displayed his phenomenal leg strength with a host of carries.

2 William Servat (France)

To think that four years ago this iron man of French farming stock was a flanker on the Toulouse second team due to a career threatening knee injury. Accurate darts and ever-willing ball carries throughout. It helps mind, that he rarely plays beyond 50 minutes. Ross Ford has to take much of the credit for the Scots’ solid set-pieces too.

3 Euan Murray (Scotland)

I am tempted to put in the ever combative and competitive Martin Castrogiovanni, while Nicolas Mas also had a fine tournament, but in a team that adds up to more than the sum of its parts Murray is probably Scotland’s one truly world-class operator

4 Lionel Nallet (France)

Another of the rejuvenated older French guard, courtesy of both his move to Racing and relinquishing the captaincy. The workhorse and enforcer in an excellent French tight five, Nallet’s mobility around the pitch and huge work-rate belied his 33 years.

5 Alastair Kellock (Scotland)

Along with Jim Hamilton, the 6ft 8in Scottish lock underlined the value of his apparently exhaustive line-out studies by helping to orchestrate the best line-out in the competition. Fast around the field, on the final day he even achieved the rarity of eclipsing Paul O’Connell in the air.

6 Thierry Dusautoir (France)

Leader par excellence of the Grand Slammers. There’s probably no more destructive, hard-tackling flanker in the world and when Harinorodquy was off injured and all around him were losing their nerves on the last night, Dusautoir held his team together with the honesty and bravery of his work.

7 David Wallace (Ireland)

Admittedly unusually anonymous in Paris, in all other games Wallace’s work-rate, tackling and remarkable leg strength and footwork were to the fore, even in last Saturday’s losing cause. John Barclay re-invoked the spirit of Finaly Calder amid the Killer Bs.

8 Imanol Harinordoquy (France)

This was a vintage crop, with Healsip, Beattie and Zanni – manfully filling the boots of Parisse – all good.

But the sight of the brilliant Basque number eight in full flight was an abiding memory of the campaign. Carried huge, caught high balls and turned them into attacks, and was immense in defensive line-outs. Player of the tournament.