Six Nations 2025 Team of the Tournament: Maro Itoje, Antoine Dupont, Tom Curry and more

With the conclusion of the 2025 Six Nations, and France reclaiming the title and being crowned champions, it is time to turn attention to the stand-out players in each position.

This year's Six Nations has been one of the most competitive in a long time, between the top four at least, which translates to this team being quite a tricky one to pick - with several candidates in each spot.

Here, Sports News Blitz’s rugby union Jacob Garrett selects his team of top performers.

Jean-Baptiste Gros

The loosehead prop has been exceptional throughout the tournament, being a key cog in the machine that is the French front eight.

The Toulon man replaced the ever-brilliant Cyril Baille, resulting from the Toulouse star going through some injury issues, and Gros has seamlessly slipped into the French one shirt.

Being part of the most dominant scrum in the competition with a 90.91% win rate, Gros has ticked every box of the modern prop - being excellent in the loose without losing any scrummaging ability.

Outside of his work in the set piece, the Toulon player had some excellent touches in the loose, with some brilliant tip-on passes and pullbacks within the ‘arrow-head’ formation.

These small touches and quick transfers between the forwards is a key aspect of the French attacking structure, generating quick ball speed by shifting the point of contact and allowing both a quality platform for the world-class backline against disjointed defensive lines - and Gros was at the forefront of this.

A real breakout performance for the loosehead and earned the title of the best loosehead prop in this year’s competition.

Dan Sheehan

The Irish hooker came back from a serious ACL injury in July 2024 in serious form.

Leinster’s main man was on the bench against England in the opening week, coming on early into the second half and scoring the all-important final try to put the game to bed.

After that, Simon Easterby had him starting, and captaining the side in a couple of games.

His try-scoring prowess has been world-leading. This new perception of the hooker being a scoring threat on the edge of the attacking structure is personified by Sheehan - with him finishing as the more prolific try-scoring forward, with five scores.

Apart from his ability to cross the whitewash, Sheehan’s work throughout the games has been quality - popping up with the occasional breakdown steal and general ‘dirty work’.

The hooker plays almost as a fourth backrower for the green machine, a real weapon and a definite starter come the British & Irish Lions tour to Australia.

Will Stuart

The Bath tighthead solidified his position in the England starting 15, and with a serious look-in at donning the red shirt come summer.

Stuart put to bed the question marks around his scrummaging ability from the autumn, winning seven penalties at scrum time throughout the competition as a key part of what was a much-improved England set piece.

Outside of the normal prop responsibility, he has been exceptional with ball in hand, seeing some evidence of his improved professionalism - as he has spoken about the greater attention to his diet and general fitness.

Stuart has added some real flair into his game, improving his mobility which allows the creation of space elsewhere as he opens up little spots in defence lines for others.

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Maro Itoje

A lot of talking points were made after the appointment of Itoje as England’s captain, and he has answered any issues that might have been discussed before the tournament.

The Saracens man played 80 minutes in every single game this tournament, constantly leading and fighting for his team in what was a very respectable tournament for Steve Borthwick’s men.

He looked to be back to his best, causing issues and pressuring every aspect of the opposition’s attack whilst being imperious in the lineout as normal.

England’s newly-appointed captain led from the front throughout the Six Nations and deserved plaudits for how he has dealt with a lot of pressure from the media and fans.

Thibaud Flament

The first of multiple Toulouse players to make their way into this team.

Flament has been back to his impressive self after beginning the tournament on the bench due to returning from an injury, and it looked like he has never been away.

After the introduction of Fabian Galtier’s seven-to-one split of forwards and backs, Flament seemed to be the player in the front eight who the coach left the latest to drag off. This was due to his fitness and his versatility - being able to play anywhere from four to eight.

An exceptional player who does simple things well in order to facilitate the rest of the quality around him - as well as chipping in with a spark of madness and brilliance.

Tom Curry

After becoming the youngest-ever starting player for England back in 2017, Tom Curry has been moulded into a real Test match ever-present.

But with his constant injury issues around his hip, his performances have been relatively quiet to his very high expectations - but in this year’s competition, he has been back and surpassed his normal performance standards, whilst (maybe more impressively) playing every single game.

The Sale Sharks star extended his armoury of skills, being used on the wing in defence after Scotland exploited the wide channels of the English line.

His brilliance in the contact allowed this to be closed down and gave him the odd sniff at the jackal area.

Curry certainly put his hand up for the Lions tour in the ever-competitive flanker position.

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Jac Morgan

The Welsh captain seemed to be only one of the very few positives from the Wales fan perspective.

He was a true warrior and led from the front in a team that could never really get a foothold in any game, and therefore without the ball Morgan chucked himself in front of anything and flew into every opposition breakdown.

This was backed up by the statistics as he made 88 tackles, which was the most of any player this year.

The Osprey is likely to be on the plane to Australia and may be the only Welshman aboard.

Jack Conan

Despite being the understudy for the Irish captain, Calen Doris, the Leinster man was exceptional in the limited time he had.

His carrying was certainly his point of difference, the ability he has to find weak shoulders and push back the defensive line is exceptional.

This combined with his experience - 51 Irish caps and 158 Leinster caps - makes him a real weapon for Simon Easterby’s team.

I would argue that he overshadowed his team’s captain, despite his limited game time.

Antoine Dupont

There are not enough words about the world’s best player, if not the greatest ever player.

France’s system revolves around his brilliance, the creation of fast ruck speed is used to allow him the chaos to create and express his ability - off the boot and out of hand.

Often the forward ‘pods’ are used to, sneakily, block their talisman giving him the time and space to exploit and unlock the defensive line.

Despite a poor, for his standards, performance against England - overall the scrum-half was brilliant.

The flair with which they play as a team is underpinned by his ability to perform and execute and hopefully after his horrific injury, he can return to playing to the level he has climbed to.

Fin Smith

The Northampton Saints star has claimed the English 10 shirt for himself.

After coming in against France in game week two, he has facilitated the English attack superbly, putting his backline into spaces with brilliantly-timed passes and kicks.

He has unlocked the potential of Borthwick’s attack, alongside his club team-mates as the current Premiership champions created a real spine in the backline.

With the Lions 10 shirt being blown wide open due to the emergence of Sam Prendergast and the slight drop-off from Scotland star Finn Russell - could Smith make a last dash for the fly-half position?

Louis Bielle-Biarrey

The leading try scorer, with eight tries - which is now the most tries scored in one competition - at only 21 is a scary reality for the wingers in the Northern Hemisphere.

After being on red-hot form for Bordeaux Bègles, he carried his try-scoring prowess into this year’s Six Nations.

With brilliant athleticism and pace the Frenchman is almost impossible to defend against, especially with his trademark rolling kick and collect.

It seems pretty unanimous that Bielle-Biarrey should be crowned as the player of this year’s Six Nations - and it would certainly be hard to argue with.

Tomasso Menoncello

Last year’s player of the tournament backed up his performances from 2024 with an excellent display of flair and grit, on both sides of the ball.

The Italian inside centre made the most dominant tackles in this year’s competition, as the Italians showed much improvement in their performances and avoided the ‘wooden spoon’ for the second year running - with a lot of thanks to their main man Menoncello.

At only 22, Menoncello epitomises the progression and excitement around this new-look Italian team.

Juan Ignacio Brex

Joining his fellow Italian centre, Brex has been quietly brilliant throughout Italy’s tournament.

Being one of the older members of the squad - at 32 - he certainly leads from the front.

His defensive capabilities are second to none.

Outside centre in a lot of defensive systems is seen as the main decision maker, choosing whether to shoot up or drift off and Brex shows almost perfection in this decision-making.

These defensive capabilities coupled with his dominant ball carrying, often being used as a dominant carrier off launch plays, have left him coupled with Menoncello in this team.

Tommy Freeman

The Saints man joins his fellow team-mate Fin Smith in the team.

Freeman has not always translated his club form to the international stage, but in the 2025 Six Nations, he was - at times - unplayable.

Scoring in every game this year is certainly not anything to overlook, but as well as his scoring statistics I think his general work around the park has been exceptional.

He often works off his wing to get extra touches off the shoulders of the ball players, which leads to him having the joint-second most line breaks in the competition. A

ll this coupled with his ever-brilliant work in the air showed his value to Borthwick’s team.

After this year’s performance, I think Freeman is a definite for the plane to Australia come the summer - especially with his capabilities to play in the centres.

Blair Kinghorn

The Scotland 15 was unbelievable in this year’s Six Nations, carrying his much-improved club form into the Scotland shirt and providing a real point of difference for his country.

Kinghorn tops a lot of leaderboards in terms of statistics including most carries (86), metres carried (857.9) and metres gained (574.6).

With his ability to disrupt combined with his running ability, he has become one of Scotland's premier players.

Before this year’s Six Nations, Ireland’s Hugo Keenan looked to have the Lions’ 15 jersey wrapped up - but with the Scot’s performance, I think the Toulouse star is now the frontrunner coming into the summer.

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