RBS 6 Nations 2016: 5 Players Who Enhanced Their Reputations

England won the 2016 RBS Six Nations with many of the same players who represented the Red Rose during their disastrous 2015 Rugby World Cup campaign.

Their upturn in fortune may in part be down to the arrival of Eddie Jones as head coach, but several of their players made the leap from mediocrity to international class.

This list also includes representatives from Wales and France.

Scotland’s Stuart Hogg was outstanding throughout the tournament, but given that he has been his side’s beacon for years, his fine reputation was not as enhanced as much over the course of the 2016 Six Nations as those mentioned here.

Billy Vunipola has made an excellent transition from a No. 8 with potential to an international-class back-rower.

In 2015, he had to compete hard with Ben Morgan for a starting berth with England, and in September, Sir Clive Woodward wrote in his Daily Mail column that for then-coach Stuart Lancaster, “The closest call, I suspect, was between Ben Morgan and Billy Vunipola at No 8.”

But Vunipola is indispensable now. Per the Six Nations Matchcentre, the Brisbane-born player made a mammoth 18 carries for 81 hard-earned metres against France.

For Vunipola to improve further, he would do well to add to his armoury. At the moment, he is used almost exclusively as a ball-carrier, but to be the best in the world at his position, the Saracens man needs to improve his participation at the breakdown.

Aged just 23, Vunipola has the time to do just that.

Guilhem Guirado was strangely subdued against England on Matchday 5, because for the majority of the Six Nations, the hooker has seemed to be on a one-man mission to save France from obscurity.

His performance in a losing cause against Wales (see video above) was arguably the finest individual showing of the championship, and the 29-year-old has relished the responsibility of the captaincy.

Guirado is the one French player who enhanced his reputation this Six Nations.

It's worth remembering that Gareth Davies only came to prominence at the 2015 Rugby World Cup because of the injury that ruled Rhys Webb out of the tournament.

Since then, however, Davies has been the best scrum-half in the northern hemisphere, and in an era without many brilliant No. 9s, perhaps only New Zealand’s Aaron Smith is ahead of him on recent form.

The 25-year-old enhanced his reputation in the Six Nations by proving that eye-catching outings at the World Cup were his regular level.

A man-of-the-match display against France was harsh on Guilhem Guirado, but Davies was comfortably the best Welshman at the Principality Stadium that evening.

The Scarlets man's vision, attacking threat and big-match mentality ensured his excellent form in the World Cup continued in the Six Nations.

George North came into the Six Nations under pressure.

The winger’s early-career tryscoring form with Wales had dropped, and he was not enjoying his season with Northampton Saints.

But North, with a try in four championship matches in a row, equalled the great Shane Williams’ scoring record, thereby restoring and enhancing his fearsome reputation.

I take Maro Itoje and George Kruis together because it reflects how seamless their second-row combination has become for Saracens and England.

A few years ago, it was reckoned that, in Joe Launchbury and Courtney Lawes, England had fixed their lock-forward duo for the foreseeable future.

As England World Cup-winning second row Ben Kay remarked in 2014, per the Rugby Paper: “Are they the best second row partnership in world rugby at the moment? I think so.”

But such has been Itoje’s swift graduation and Kruis’ growing maturity, it is now hard to imagine them being displaced in the England second row for a generation.

There can be no greater enhancement of reputation than that.