Huw Jones, James Lowe and Bundee Aki all put their hands up for a Lions Test cap. (Getty Images)
All the attention of the rugby union world will be on Australia later this year, when the British and Irish Lions return to these shores for the first time since 2013.
Being selected for a Lions tour is a career highlight for any English, Irish, Scottish or Welsh player.
But to be selected, they have to prove that they can perform at the highest level, and the Six Nations provides the last chance to prove themselves at international level before Andy Farrell announces his squad.
As the Northern Hemisphere's top tournament got underway this weekend, there was a win for Ireland against an England team that showed some promise in parts, an injury-hit Scotland team battled to victory over Italy, and France obliterated Wales.
Here are the winners and losers from week one of the Six Nations, from a Lions touring perspective.
Winners: Ireland's backs
Bundee Aki was brilliant for Ireland in the centres. (Getty Images: Sportsfile/Brendan Moran)
There is nothing more terrifying to Wallabies than the thought of New Zealanders running rampant over their gold jerseys, so the form of Ireland's trio of New Zealand-born backs against England was ominous, to put it lightly.
Scrum half Jamison Gibson-Park was named player of the match for the way he steered his side around the park, scoring Ireland's only try of a very competitive first half in Dublin and is still in the box seat to be the Lions scrum half, despite an impressive display from Toulon's Ben White (Scotland).
The frankly inhuman speed and strength of James Lowe was on full display as he embarrassed England 9 Alex Mitchell — whose weakness in defence was highlighted by his poor effort and surely knocks him down in the Lions pecking order — before laying the ball inside to Gibson-Park to score.
Lowe was, and always will be a threat on the wing, his size making him so difficult to tackle.
Two further line-breaks from the former Māori All Black through the middle raised the intriguing prospect of his ability as a makeshift centre — especially with his booming kicking ability.
But that would ignore the form of Bundee Aki, whose barrelling run through three English players in the corner helped settle Irish nerves in the second half.
All three gave themselves big ticks, although Huw Jones' hat-trick for Scotland in another superb performance at 13, and Ollie Lawrence's excellent game for England, ensured there are plenty of midfield options.
Winners: England's loose forwards
Tom Curry was excellent in the back row for England. (Getty Images: David Rogers)
Granted, England fell short against Ireland, but backrowers Tom Curry, Ben Earl and skipper lock Maro Itoje more than put themselves in the picture for a Lions Test berth with some impressive performances.
Curry, playing alongside identical twin Ben in the back row for the first time, was at his bruising best in the loose alongside Earl, winning ball at the breakdown and generally throwing themselves all over the shop.
When Earl was withdrawn before the hour mark as one of a series of nonsensical substitutions that England coach Steve Borthwick is obsessed by, England lost a little bit of that drive around the loose.
We'll include Itoje in this discussion because he plays like a back rower at times, constantly jackling around the edges of rucks.
The England skipper is one of the candidates to be Lions skipper too and did his hopes no harm at all with another assured display despite the result.
One possible question mark over Itoje is his discipline, but that seems to be more a perception by referees, as Ben O'Keeffe's baffling decision to penalise a non-existent push at a lost Irish lineout showed.
Elsewhere, Caelan Doris (Ireland) was great at number 8, Tadhg Beirne was brilliant at lock, while Rory Darge (Scotland) was at his ball-stealing best against Italy.
Question marks: Fly half
Sam Prendergast had his moments, but certainly didn't do enough to definitively answer any questions over his place. (Getty Images: Sportsfile/Brendan Moran)
Ireland opted for 21-year-old Leinster half Sam Prendergast to start against England, but the youngster didn't really do enough to spark an error-strewn back line into life.
His underwhelming performance was thrown into relief by his replacement, Munster's Jack Crowley, who came on and instantly helped Ireland tick into gear.
The battle for the Ireland 10 jersey has raged all winter in the north, with loyalties split along provincial lines, with Munster men seemingly proved correct that, for now at least, Crowley should be top dog.
With the other key figure in the race for the Lions starting berth, Scotland's Finn Russell having a mixed match for Scotland against Italy in Edinburgh, the starting spot is still up for grabs.
If you want excitement and out the box thinking, then look no further than Marcus Smith.
Marcus Smith showed flashes of brilliance with the ball in hand. (Getty Images: Sportsfile/Ramsey Cardy)
The Harlequins 10 is no doubt the most thrilling halfback the four home nations can put up, but is that spontaneity and thrilling excitement what's needed in a pressure cooker of a Lions Test match?
Smith was superb early on, but faded in the second half as Ireland took control, his slide into anonymity aided by the increasingly crazy-looking decision to move him to full back when the replacements are deployed cannot continue to happen.
Speaking of fullback, Hugo Keenan (Ireland) and Freddie Steward (England) were both fine, but Blair Kinghorn (Scotland) is still the main man in the 15 jersey after a solid display under the high ball in Edinburgh.
Open to debate: Anyone up front
The most thankless of tasks in rugby is to ply ones trade in the coalface of the scrum, and nobody truly shone on week one.
Rónan Kelleher was perfectly adequate at hooker for Ireland, but his lineout throwing was far superior to the virtually anonymous Luke Cowan-Dickie, whose display probably did more to support absent former skipper Jamie George's case than his own.
Zander Fagerson was typically excellent for Scotland, both in the lose and tight, while England's Ellis Genge was penalised a lot at scrum time, perhaps unfairly, but was as busy as ever in the loose, with some of the best hands in world rugby for a man his size.
Ireland's Andrew Porter also stood tall, with a solid display at scrum time and busy elsewhere.
Losers: Wales
Wales have now lost 13 matches in a row. (AP Photo: Michel Euler)
Oh boy, where do we start?
The Welsh public probably knew they were going to suffer a bit throughout this Six Nations, but I doubt even they could have suspected their side would be quite so insipid against France in Paris.
Les Bleus' 43-0 victory was its biggest win over Wales at home in history, and condemned Wales to a 13th-straight international defeat.
It is genuinely hard to imagine more than a cursory number of Welsh players being considered for the squad, although Jac Morgan's industry and effort was admirable in an overall poor performance.
Outside of him though, things are looking very bleak.
Given 12 years ago, Welsh players made up a huge proportion of the touring party, their absence this year will be noticeable.
The two best Welsh and Welsh-adjacent men to come out of the Paris flogging with their reputations intact were France defence coach Shaun Edwards and unselected Gloucester centre Max Llewellyn.
Llewellyn, 26, has been in good form for the Cherry and Whites in the Premiership this year, and after a completely ineffectual performance from the entire Welsh back line, his absence may turn out to be a blessing.
Loser: Sione Tuipulotu
Heading into the new year, there were some pundits who suggested that the Lions could do worse than field an entire back line of Scotland players — although few of those voices were being heard on one side of the Irish Sea.
Part of the reason for that was the hugely influential Scotland captain Sione Tuipulotu, and his magical partnership with Huw Jones.
The Victoria-born former Melbourne Rebel has been one of Scotland's best as Gregor Townsend's side continued to make people sit up and take note and he, more than anyone, would have loved to carry that form into a tour against the nation of his birth.
So the pectoral injury that saw him ruled out of the Six Nations and required surgery came at a shocking time.
The 27-year-old is expected to return to the Glasgow Warriors before the end of the domestic season, but there is no telling what sort of form he will have.
"I will be back," Tuipulotu wrote on Instagram when his injury was confirmed.
"I genuinely can't believe it, but the game is the game and I won't doubt God's timing."
Whether that timing sits right for the Lions tour, remains to be seen.
If a Lions team were picked today…
What the players are all hoping to wear Down Under. (Getty Images: David Rogers)
- Andrew Porter (IRE)
- Rónan Kelleher (IRE)
- Zander Fagerson (SCO)
- Maro Itoje (ENG) (c)
- Tadhg Beirne (IRE)
- Rory Darge (SCO)
- Tom Curry (ENG)
- Ben Earl (ENG)
- Jamison Gibson-Park (IRE)
- Marcus Smith (ENG)
- James Lowe (IRE)
- Bundee Aki (IRE)
- Huw Jones (SCO)
- Duhan van der Merwe (SCO)
- Blair Kinghorn (SCO)
Replacements: Dave Cherry (SCO), Ellis Genge (ENG), Pierre Schoeman (SCO), Jonny Gray (SCO), Jac Morgan (WAL), Ben White (SCO), Jack Crowley (IRE), Ollie Lawrence (ENG).
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