Gerry Thornley: November gives way for intriguing Six Nations

That sets up the Six Nations pretty nicely. For the four home countries especially, November marked a month of progress. True, in a dozen matches between teams from the Six Nations and the Rugby Championship, the former had five wins to the latter's seven, but extract Italy's defeats and New Zealand's wins, and the tally was 5-2.

Like New Zealand, Ireland and England came through the month unbeaten, the Scots finished it off with that eye-catching, record rout of the Wallabies, and like the latter three Wales unearthed several more players at this level while evolving their style.

First and foremost, Ireland maintained their winning run by emulating their clean sweep of 2014. By beating Argentina, Ireland have also beaten every Tier One country over the last two years, save for Wales, including all four members of the Rugby Championship. That said, the majority of those wins have been at home.

Transforming a good autumn into a productive spring doesn’t necessarily go hand-in-hand, nor does it follow that a poor November bodes ill for the Six Nations, but a winning habit is no bad thing.

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The Irish scrum has rarely been stronger, the lineout and maul are well-oiled and ditto the defence and work at the breakdown, while the attack has been sharpened with Johnny Sexton usually orchestrating a variety of plays, often behind a three-man pod or screen, with Joey Carbery also doing so.

One thinks of those pull-back passes by Rob Herring and Chris Farrell for Darren Sweetnam's try against Fiji and Jacob Stockdale's first try. More offloading would be nice, but the interlinking between forwards and backs has progressed.

Several players also strongly suggested they could perform at Test level, even come the Six Nations. Jacob Stockdale most obviously falls into this category, but so too James Ryan, Bundee Aki, Andrew Conway, Joey Carbery and Chris Farrell. One might well add Darren Sweetnam and Rob Herring.

The problem for Farrell, and a few more, is when he might be granted another opportunity, all the more so with Garry Ringrose and Robbie Henshaw back in the mix.

There was also further evidence of the rejuvenation in Cian Healy and Rob Kearney, David Kilcoyne's upward graph, CJ Stander's return to his best, the ongoing form of Rhys Ruddock and the promise of Andrew Porter. Ireland still remain dependant on key players, notably Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton, whose status as the leading halves around was underlined, but then again that's true of all sides with the possible exception of New Zealand.

Last minute

Scotland arguably made the most impressive strides of all, taking the All Blacks to the last minute in that 17-22 defeat before running in eight tries against Australia.

Scotland's three home fixtures against Samoa, New Zealand and Australia produced 28 tries, 16 of them for the home side. This took their tally in a calendar year to 41, the highest since Scotland last won the championship in 1999, with current coach Gregor Townsend at outhalf.

Saturday's win was achieved without a slew of injured players and then Stuart Hogg, who aggravated a hip injury in the warm-up. In stepped their Namibian-born Sale winger Byron McGuigan, with a two-try Man of the Match performance.

Ireland’s World Cup pool looks increasingly tougher, especially given Japan’s draw with France in the new U Arena on Saturday.

Admittedly, that completed a dismal, winless month for Les Bleus, after which Bernard Laporte, who had set a target of three wins, said he would give himself two weeks to decide on the futures of Guy Noves and Yannick Bru, who are contracted through until 2019. Laporte has long had a less than warm relationship with Noves, but the problem is the lack of alternatives, at least not under contract themselves until then, and the paucity of coaches Laporte appears to like apart, maybe, from himself!

Granted, autumn form is particularly less relevant when it comes to the French, and time was when they were a good bet in the season after a Lions’ tour, as in 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010, when last claiming the title, with Grand Slams in ’02 and ’10. But they finished fourth in 2014, only arresting a run of five years in the bottom half of the table with last season’s third place finish.

The signs of a revival under Guy Noves and Yannick Bru in that tournament have been replaced by a seven-match winless run. They looked utterly rudderless and without direction this month, hardly surprising given a selection which has been likened to a rubik’s cube.

While this has partly been inflicted by circumstances, in Noves' 21 matches to date they have used a scarcely credible 74 players. They missed the injured Camille Lopez this month, but even so, against the All Blacks, Antoine Dupont and Anthony Belleau became the ninth different half-back partnership to start a Test under Noves.

As an aside, although Ireland made light of the rain against South Africa, conditions were remarkably favourable, and that is unlikely to be the case in 15 locations over five weekends from early February all the way through to mid-March.

Even so, it all looks set fair for Ireland in Paris, with three home matches in a row before the St Patrick’s Day finale against England at Twickenham. But France first up could be the trickiest time to play Les Bleus, especially in Paris. After their desultory November, they will be in do-or-die mode.

gthornley@irishtimes.com