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When undefeated France visit Murrayfield on Saturday in the penultimate round of the Six Nations, every facet of Scotland’s game will be tested.

The rampant defending champions are the only side still chasing a Grand Slam after swatting aside Ireland, Wales, and Italy so far, and Scotland and England are the sides left who can stop them.

A win for Gregor Townsend’s side would not only halt that but would put themselves in a position to win a first ever Six Nations title on the final weekend when they go to Dublin.

A key area of Test rugby since the escort rule was changed, France have dominated every opponent in the air so far.

Not only have they booted the ball the most of any side in the Six Nations, but they have retained possession from more of their own kicks than others, too.

Nine more than the next best side, Ireland.

It is not just a case of France winning back the ball from their own kicks, but their ablity to score directly from any aerial contest.

Scotland have been pretty good in this area of the game too.

They are second for percentage of their kicks retained so far, and scrum-half Ben White is the player who tops the rankings for most kicks retained (10).

Wingers Kyle Steyn and Jamie Dobie were key to Scotland getting the better of England in the skies in round two, before the latter had his campaign ended by injury.

Duhan van der Merwe returned against Wales but was taken off early for Darcy Graham, who scored a crucial try from Finn Russell’s quickly-taken restart.

But might Townsend bring in Glasgow’s Kyle Rowe to play in the back three alongside Blair Kinghorn and Steyn?

Comfortable at full-back or wing, Rowe scored twice in Warriors’ defeat by Connacht at the weekend and is strong under high balls as well as on the counter-attack.

Although it has not been the hallmark of their performances in this Six Nations like others in the past, France still possess a formidable power game.

Players like second-row Emmanuel Meafou, who stands at 6ft 8in and weighs 145kg, have more bulk than Scotland have to offer in their ranks.

Power as well as a dynamic back row means France have carried for the most metres in the Championship in total, as well as made more metres on average with every individual carry.

On the other side of the ball, they have the top six most dominant tacklers so far.

In Paris a year ago, Scotland managed to live with France for 60 minutes and, but for Huw Jones’ disallowed try and a French counter-attack score after Graham knocked on in the other 22, might have put serious pressure on at the end.

Ultimately, France overpowered Scotland in the final quarter with plenty to spare to win the title.

The energy drawn from the home crowd will be a factor, as will the composition of the bench.

And whether number eight Jack Dempsey is fit could be crucial. The 31-year-old was expected to miss the rest of the Six Nations after damaging a bicep against England.

But he is back in the squad and seemingly in contention to play. As Scotland’s most belligerent ball carrier, it would enhance their chances if he is physically able to make an impact.

His back-row and Glasgow colleague Rory Darge has the most turnovers (eight) in the tournament and his ability to slow France’s ball down will also be key.

Scotland started slowly against both Italy and Wales.

They were punished in Rome’s monsoon despite getting to within a score of Italy, and then got themselves out of jail at the end in Cardiff.

If they start slowly against France, the game will likely be over very quickly.

Fabien Galthie’s side have stormed out of the blocks in every match so far, managing six tries in the opening quarter across their three games.

Ireland were 22-0 down by half-time in Paris, Wales conceded after 90 seconds, and Italy were 19-0 behind before the half-hour mark.

Every team wants to start every game quickly, but is never as simple as that. The opposition is gunning for the same explosion from the blocks, as a starter.

But it is clear Scotland cannot afford to build into the game, they need the sort of start they got against England when they raced 17-0 ahead.

The 2026 Formula 1 season is nearly upon us and there are many questions to answer, following the biggest regulation change in the sport’s history.

The chassis, tyres and fuel are all subject to new regulations, and we will have to get used to new terms, such as overtake mode, boost mode and active aero.

Last year’s drivers’ champion Lando Norris will be hoping that McLaren remain the dominant team, but Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull all looked strong in pre-season.

What can we expect from Ferrari this season? Is it possible to have high hopes for an eighth world championship for Lewis Hamilton? – Liam

There are two questions in one here, and the answer to one does not necessarily define the other.

It’s self-evident that Lewis Hamilton can only fight for the title if his car and team are up to it. Until the season starts, no-one knows for sure whether that’s the case, but the signs in testing were positive.

Most teams had the impression after six days in Bahrain that Mercedes and Ferrari were the teams to beat heading to the first race of the season.

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has been saying for some time that the first race will not define the season. He believes development will be significant enough that there will be a chance for the order to change through the year.

Of course, that could be both true, as well as a not very subtle way of taking the pressure off if Ferrari do struggle in Australia.

Even if the car is competitive, though, there have to be questions about Hamilton after his lacklustre performances in both 2024 with Mercedes and 2025 with Ferrari.

He addressed his difficult 2025, and his many negative comments, in an Instagram post recently, saying he was “re-set and refreshed” and admitting: “For a moment, I forgot who I was.”

Can he recover his former level and take on Charles Leclerc if the car is competitive? Or has he simply lost a little of his edge as age – he is now 41 – has taken its toll?

Last season and before, Williams kept saying that their focus was on this year’s car and the new regulations, yet they are late for testing and then turn up with an overweight car that is one of the slowest on track. How did they get the new regulations so wrong? – Stewart

Good question.

Williams team principal James Vowles has been saying pretty much since he joined the team in early 2023 that this season was the team’s chance to make a big step forward in their ambition to return to the top of F1.

So, having finished fifth last year, ending testing with what appears to be the ninth fastest car was certainly not part of the plan.

Williams have hit a number of issues. Their car build was delayed, and that meant they missed the first pre-season test in Barcelona.

Even before then, there were rumours that the car was overweight. Vowles has not denied this is the case but has continually ducked giving a direct answer as to how much by.

While most teams are struggling to get to the weight limit – McLaren have admitted they are not there yet, for example – it seems Williams are an extreme case.

Why, is another good question. Certainly failing at least one of the mandatory impact tests and having to do remedial work to ensure they passed it will not have helped but won’t explain everything.

If the Williams is as heavy as rumoured – up to 20kg over the limit – that’s 0.7 seconds of lap time right there. In a tight midfield battle, that’s enough to make the difference between being at the front and at the back, where they look to be.

Vowles says: “There are some bits of the car that are absolutely championship level. And there’s other bits where we have a long way to go before we’re there, including just getting the car built and finished as a polished article.

“You only know your boundaries by absolutely pushing every boundary possible. I absolutely believe in what I would call intelligent failure. And you get there by effectively pushing the boundaries of what you’re doing. And what we did was exactly that this year.”

Interesting reading about Arvid Lindblad and this might be a silly question but being 18, when did he pass his driving test? – Lin

New Racing Bulls driver Arvid Lindblad – the youngest British F1 driver in history – has not yet passed his driving test. You may have seen this video released by the team last week.

Why did Aston Martin go to Honda engines when the history and circumstances suggested this was risky? – Emily

Aston Martin signed their deal to become Honda’s works engine partner in early 2023.

At the time, the received wisdom in F1 was that a team needed to have a factory engine deal to win the championship. The only time that had not been the case before then in the modern era was Brawn in 2009, and those were exceptional circumstances.

Since then, McLaren with their Mercedes engines have proved that it is possible to win the title as a customer, but Aston Martin did not know that at the time.

McLaren were also the team who suffered when Honda returned to F1 in 2015 underprepared. The pair split after three difficult years, but while Honda progressively improved following their switch to Red Bull, it was only in 2021 that they finally produced an engine that was absolutely competitive.

The same man was primarily responsible for both the McLaren and Aston Martin deals with Honda – Martin Whitmarsh, who used to be CEO of the Aston Martin team.

You might think that Whitmarsh would have been “once bitten twice shy” when it came to Honda.

But on the basis that Honda were winning with Red Bull at the time, and that this gave an ambitious team an exclusive works engine deal, it would be harsh to say that it was self-evidently a bad decision when it was made.

In hindsight, of course, it was very much a mistake. If Aston Martin still had a Mercedes engine, they would be in a much better place – although there are serious question marks about their car, too, right now.

Honda’s situation is very reminiscent of 2015. A new engine that is down on power and weak at energy recovery.

After a decade in F1, and notwithstanding the hiatus when they thought they were pulling out and disbanded much of the engine department, how they’ve found themselves in this place again still seems incredible.

The angry, despairing look on team owner Lawrence Stroll’s face in Bahrain said it all.

What are the chances of any midfield team joining the ‘Big Four’? Major regulation changes always promise the prospect of it but it never seems to happen. – Joe

None, right now. There appears to be a gap of at least a second between the top four – McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari – and the rest heading into the season.

In a way, this is a disappointment, six years into the regulations that were aimed at closing up the field.

Those are a) the budget cap; and b) the sliding scale of aerodynamic restrictions that see the best teams permitted the least amount of research and development time and the worst the most.

Last year, these both seemed to be having an effect – the grid was more compressed than ever before.

What’s the difference between overtake mode and boost mode? Surely if one driver activates overtake mode the other driver can activate boost mode to negate any benefit? – Leigh

The car can only ever deploy a maximum of 350kw of electrical energy, but there is a difference between boost mode and overtake mode.

Boost can be used by any driver at any time, but it comes out of the car’s standard allocation of electrical energy. This is usually 8.5 megajoules (MJ), but it can change depending on circuit characteristics.

When a driver has overtake mode, they are allowed to recover more energy during a lap, usually 0.5MJ. So they can deploy maximum energy for longer.

Overtake mode is triggered when a driver is within one second of the car in front at a detection point, usually before the first corner. The driver can use it whenever they like for the rest of that lap.

With the power-train changes, there is potential for greater differential in speed (for example, a car on full electrical deployment coming up behind a car which has no electrical power available). Does this present a greater risk of collision and, if so, how is the FIA managing this? – Ian

There is a greater risk of collision if one car goes into energy recovery mode while another is still going flat out on full power behind.

Are the moveable aero parts disabled in wet conditions? – Anthony

Yes. The rules give the FIA discretion to disable the ‘straight-line mode’, where the front and rear wings open to reduce drag and boost speed.

A 2023 victory over Italy in Rome was the last time Wales savoured that winning feeling in the Six Nations and while predictions the losing streak will end in Dublin on Friday are thin on the ground, Ireland forwards coach Paul O’Connell insists “we don’t expose ourselves” to such discourse.

Certainly, it’s been another tough campaign for the Welsh who were whitewashed in the last two championships, while they look favourites for a third-straight wooden spoon with three defeats in their opening fixtures this year.

However, O’Connell does not believe the outlook is as bleak for Steve Tandy’s side as some predict, refusing to downplay the chances of their visitors who were minutes from victory against Scotland in their last outing.

Still, the Irish approach remains the same, less concerned about what the opposition will bring and more about “getting excited to do our thing”.

“For sure, we focus on the opposition but less than we did in my playing days,” the former Ireland captain told reporters on Tuesday.

“There’s real excitement about how we’re going to play and perform, but having said that, Wales have excellent players and athletes, really good coaches.

“You’ve seen hints of it over the last few months and I think Wales are going to get better and better, but for us, it’s about our performance.

Ireland endured a tough night in Paris to begin their campaign, but bounced back against Italy before delivering their best performance of the championship against England.

While they ran out impressive 42-21 winners at Twickenham, it took a strong defensive effort in the early stages to keep Steve Bortwick’s side from striking first.

A good start to a game can set the tone for what is to follow and while O’Connell was happy how “the lads dug in and stopped them scoring when they were close to our line”, the 2009 British and Irish Lions captain would have preferred a more comfortable opening.

“That was really good for us, but it’s not something you want to be doing – spending that much time so close to your line.

“I think our ability to get out of our own half, whether that’s kicking the ball, attacking well or whatever it is, it’s really important and I think we rode our luck at the start of the game.

“When you’re 10-0 up, the game changes and I think England only kicked 18 times which is very little for them as they had to change how they played.

With key figures such as Jonathan Sexton, Peter O’Mahony, Conor Murray and Cian Healy departing in recent years, there has been an element of transition about the Ireland squad.

Jamie Osborne, Robert Baloucoune and Jeremy Loughman all started against England and are part of the new wave seeking to establish themselves in Andy Farrell’s side.

While Twickenham represented a good day for the new and not so new faces, there have also been more try experiences, yet O’Connell feels each are as important for the development of the squad.

“In the past, we’ve had a very experienced team and that’s changed a little bit,” he said.

“The French experience for so many, the South Africa experience, even the Italy game was a great experience.

“I think our guys who have the most influence are those who are most consistent in how they train and prepare. Off the back of that, they are the most consistent in how they play.

Long-serving Northern Ireland midfielder Nadene Caldwell says the team will be “keen to get some early points on the board” and “build up a bit of momentum” to boost their qualification campaign for the 2027 World Cup in Brazil.

The squad kick off their group matches by taking on Switzerland on Tuesday, before welcoming Turkey to Mourneview Park on Saturday.

Interim manager Kris Lindsay is taking charge of the side for at least the first pair of 2027 qualifiers as the search for Tanya Oxtoby’s permanent successor continues.

Northern Ireland will play Malta home and away in April, before ending the series with further fixtures against Turkey and Switzerland.

“This is going to be a very tough group and for us that starts against Switzerland, before our full focus will turn to Turkey,” Caldwell told BBC Sport NI’s Nicola McCarthy.

“For us it’s important to try and get some points on the board early so that the team can kick on in confidence and really kick on the campaign.

“It’s a crammed fixture list but we must try to build up a bit of momentum.”

Caldwell added that the opener against Switzerland represents a tough start but welcomes the opportunity for the side to test themselves against top opposition.

“The main thing for us is that we’re getting competitive games and you can measure yourself against the best players in the world. That can only make you better as a player.

“Take the positives from one game and move onto the next, and hopefully we can go on a good run.

Northern Ireland are second seeds in the group and Caldwell says the hope is that position will be reflected in the qualifying table come the end of the campaign.

“We want to be second in the group. That’s where we are seeded and anything else would be a disappointment.

“Turkey will be a massive test for us, in and around us in the rankings, so we’ll really look forward to that, but we’re fully focused on Switzerland first.

“We have to use the ball well when we have it and go and express ourselves and really show what it means to play for Northern Ireland.”

With regular captain Simone Magill taking time out from the game as she is pregnant, Caldwell is unsure who will assume the skipper’s armband in her absence, and whether Lindsay will remain at the helm for April’s matches.

“It’s not something we’ve spoken about [the captaincy] – there are a lot of great leaders within the group and that leadership role can come in any shape or form.