LONG READ Ben Kay: 'I’d put my money on Ollie Chessum being the next England captain.'

I have only just recovered from one of the best sporting occasions in living memory. In my career, I have been lucky enough to attend some of the biggest sporting events in the world and honestly, I’ve never had an event like this Saturday. The atmosphere in Paris was just unbelievable.

I was told the FFR (French Federation de Rugby) spent 200,000 Euros on the evening to commemorate the 120^thanniversary of Le Crunch and it was easy to see why, with those easy-on-the-eye powder blue shirts, the laser light show and even a bit of history chucked in. They got the crowd involved early on and the fireworks at the end took the breath away. It often happens that when you create that type of buzz, the game can be a let-down, but this game for the ages probably outshone it.

We do a lot of navel-gazing in rugby, and agonise about how we can make rugby grow, but I guarantee for anyone in that stadium on Saturday night, it would have been one of the best nights of their life. For that reason, the Six Nations has been a total joy. There was a TV audience on both sides of the channel that peaked at nearly 15m people so there is definitely an appetite for that sort of event on that scale.

Is Ollie Chessum inked in as the next England captain?

Ollie was absolutely superb. It was a complete performance. Lineout work, defensively, ball-carrying, but also his leadership abilities. I spoke to Jonny [Wilkinson] after the game about him and we both liked what we saw. He’s flame haired and you can see his passion. He’s not afraid to show how much he cares. One of the criticisms about England has been a lack of emotion and we all know Borthers isn’t renowned for that, while Maro is a quiet, softly spoken character. I need to point out that I’m not advocating taking the armband off Maro, but if you asked me who’d be his successor and I’d put money on it being Ollie. He’s only 25, has captained Leicester and he’s into everything on the field. He also has a good relationship with referees and communicates well with the media. He’s building a compelling case.

…but did Chessum gift the game to France?

Scroll online and many fans were saying his decision not to run under the sticks cost England the two points that could have won them the game. I’ve been in that situation myself and what you need to remember is live TV footage allows you to see the wide angle, so you can see everything on the pitch. Believe me, it’s not like that when you’re playing in the game. It’s like George Ford says, ‘a coach can see more than us, but players have more of an innate feel for what’s happening in game’. As soon as Chessum intercepts, all he can see is what’s in front of him – green field being hoovered up with his loping strides. He can’t see any of the defenders, but he knows that French back three is full of pace, so my guess is he quickly looks over his left shoulder to see what defenders are turning while he’s running an angle.

He doesn’t have a rearview mirror to know they’ve given up because they know they can’t catch him. He’s thinking, what’s my best line to make the tryline. I remember against Bath intercepting in a similar place and it’s a long way for us big boys. I knew I was being caught up but I was just glad I made it. I did the same against Argentina and I was caught going over the line. Luckily, I was able to ground it. In the relief of getting to the line, he raises his hand before flopping down but he should have glanced over his right shoulder to circle round under the sticks, but that’s his only mistake. He’ll learn from that and if he’s ever in that position again.

England’s backrow make-up may need switched-up

Chessum’s performance brings into sharp focus England’s recent backrow selection policy. Of late, Borthers has been picking what most of us would call three opensides back in our day, but the spirited performance against France means England have ask serious questions about what they want their identity to be. We know what South Africa stand for; power up front and panache out wide. We know what France stand for; massive forwards and electric backs. With England, there’s still a bit of, ‘what’s their USP?’ Paris may have made his mind up. Personally, I think we probably need to lean into England’s traditional strengths of being very physical in the pack, allied to the speed he’s trying to add out wide, with the likes of Feyi-Waboso and even Noah Caluori by 2027. It means a No 6 who might need to resemble a towering Springbok like Pieter Steph du Toit or Gallic DNA with someone like the totemic Charles Ollivon, rather than an All Black or a Wallaby. The pleasing thing is with (Alex) Coles and Chessum, England have two interchangeable players who could excel there. Of course, the hope is that George Martin returns from injury and reaches his previous levels. Martin is what they call in the military, a breacher. The guy who blows the doors off the place. A second-row pairing of Maro and George in the second row and one of the others starting at 6 is tasty and snapping at their heels should be 6ft 8in Junior Kpoku and Olemide Sodeke, to keep them honest. Let’s see how they line up against South Africa in July!

England need their Jonny Wilkinson

I actually thought the player who made the biggest difference in the match was Thomas Ramos. Why? Because he nailed seven out of seven kicks. Perfection. Fin Smith had a brilliant all-round game, but his goal-kicking percentage was at 50 per cent, even if in mitigation a few of them were from the touchline, but so did Ramos. When Marcus entered the fray, he didn’t miss a kick. I’m not saying Fin is a bad goal kicker, far from it, he had the best kicking percentage in the 2025 Six Nations, but you want your goal kicker to create the perception that they hardly ever miss, which Ramos pretty much has and is widely seen as the best in the world. When he stepped up for that final kick, few fans doubted he’d slot it. I don’t like to hark back but that’s what we had with Jonny Wilkinson and the All Blacks had with Dan Carter.

Having someone like that in your arsenal affects your opposition’s gameplan. Leigh Halfpenny had the same aura as did Neil Jenkins and Ronan O’Gara in their pomp. Even with all the tries being scored in this era and less penalty kicks being attempted, having a kicker with ice in his veins is still hugely important. Even though England outscored France seven-six on tries, they left seven points out there and in the end that was crucial. England need to develop their goal kickers so other teams fear them and alter how hard they compete within a kickable distance.

How to choose a Player of that Match?

One crumb of comfort while I was trying to make sense of the chaos of the last five minutes in Paris was that the Player of the Match award is decided by the host broadcaster. Therefore I didn’t have the distraction of having to run through a cast list of deserving contenders. How it works for the designated judge, they will be asked for their contenders with 20 minutes to go and then if the game isn’t really in the balance, the final decision will be announced in the last five minutes of play, but if the game is in the balance, the graphic will go up and the announcement made as late as possible, even after the final whistle. It’s extremely rare we award it to someone on the losing side partly because the recipient often doesn’t appear too enamoured about winning it in a losing cause, like Joe Launchbury famously did against Wales.

Everyone sitting on their sofa, beer in hand, has their own ideas about who should be handed it, and that’s fine but we all look for different things. Is it the person who played the most complete 80 minutes, had the highest stats, scored the most or he who had the biggest impact on the result? You could argue Ollie had the most complete performance or that Ramos’s goalkicking had the biggest impact on the result despite his 33% tackle completion stats, but there would have been a right hoo-ha they had overlooked Louis Bielle-Biarrey’s four tries.

The best Six Nations ever was full of surprises

This tournament was a rollercoaster. A game full of sliding door moments. What if Pollock hadn’t thrown that pass a minute before time? What if Cadan Murley hadn’t hacked the ball on. What if that Menoncello forward pass against Ireland wasn’t adjudged forward? If that was given, they’d have been competing for a title on the final weekend. What if Wales hadn’t switched off to allow Finn Russell’s quick thinking and Darcy Graham’s opportunism – they would have consigned England to the bottom of the table. What if George Ford’s drop goal against Scotland had missed Matt Fagerson’s hand and sailed through the uprights? All these moments which could have given a totally different complexion to the tournament.

For the first time ever, genuinely no one knew who was going to win a Six Nations game and that’s brilliant but a nightmare for us so called ‘experts’ who always get asked our predictions. I mean, who would have thought that team that finished top would concede 96 points in their last two games? Absolutely crazy. I’m just counting down the days to 2027. It was that good.