It should be a time of absolute clarity. In a World Cup year there is no time for reconstruction or experimentation. Everything should be in place. The Six Nations should be a dress rehearsal.
But nothing is clear in five of the six nations. Ireland can afford to dream a little, with visits from both England and France to Croke Park, their temporary home in Dublin, that might make a permanent 85,000-strong impression on the tournament. But they have been touted before, and failed to deliver.
I suppose it's not hard to see Italy holding up the table. Their clubs have lost their way in Europe. But that is because all their best players are with foreign clubs. Marco Bortolami, for example, is with Gloucester and playing out of his skin. If Pierre Berbizier can unite the far-flung elements of the Italian diaspora, he may yet produce the surprise package of the year.
France are all over the place, knocked about by club-and-country politics that make England's seem trivial. What is worse, in the autumn, a year before the World Cup in their own land, they opted for a style of kick and rush against the All Blacks. And succeeded only in looking about 20 years out of date.
Much of the general confusion stems from the injury lists that each coach must read through his fingers on a Monday morning. France's captain, Fabien Pelous will miss the start. The wayward Frederic Michalak, in need of games, is out for the whole campaign.
Injuries have always been, ha ha, a pain, but suddenly rugby has to develop squads deep enough to cope with casualties at an unprecedented rate. Scotland in particular are in bits, simply because a rest for the best is not an option. The loss of Jason White and the long-term absence of Allister Hogg in a country where the back-row is the beginning and the end, the heart and the soul of every strategy and tactic, will be keenly felt.
And when you lose two top-class scrum-halfs, Mike Blair and Chris Cusiter, you might be forgiven for thinking that a long-standing record can wait another two years to be broken. If Scotland were at full-strength - a compound word fast disappearing from the rugby lexicon - they would be licking their lips at the prospect of breaking their 23-year drought at Twickenham.
As things stand, however, England's opening games offer them as comfortable an introduction to World Cup year as it is possible to have: Scotland and Italy at home on consecutive Saturdays. It is about their first stroke of luck since they sent for Mike Catt at half time in the 2003 World Cup quarter-final against Wales, and a player best known for being as reliable as a watch hit by a hammer became a model of authority
Catt is still around, as is the bloke whose nerves he helped settle back then. Jonny Wilkinson. Yes, and what's more, seen at the heart of the England three-quarters in training, issuing orders here and advice there...
But no. Let's not even go there. The most injured player in an injury-riddled era is a picture of health, touch wood. But he needs time, not stress.
And yet, you can't help thinking that if Wilkinson and Andy Farrell ever teamed up at 10 and 12 for England, the road to recovery might quickly become a fast track to all sorts of spooky expectations. Like a World Cup defence. Again, let's not get ahead of ourselves.
It needs the new coach, Brian Ashton, to keep all this in perspective. All he is promising is 'no bullshit rugby'. That is pure wisdom, given England's past three years.
Wales are politically unruffled at the moment. This puts them in uncharted waters. Anything could happen. It was interesting to see Gareth Jenkins at the Hurlingham Club in west London on Wednesday morning. Having been through an autumn campaign with Wales and having seen the media mob on the Lions tour of 2005, he was still startled by the size of the scrum at the Six Nations launch. We were there in our hundreds. The Six Nations has grown.
So much depends on Wales's first game. England have the luck of the draw; Wales have Ireland. They have home advantage but this is a beast of a starter. Wales are devoted to a high-risk game - if Ashton is warning against bullshit rugby, Wales are rather drawn to it - and if it comes off, with James Hook forming a creative bond with Stephen Jones and Dwayne Peel, they could sweep all before them as they did in the freak year of 2005.
But Wales need a break in that first game, just as they had against England in 2005. Ireland may not be so accommodating. They are not clear favourites for the title for nothing.
If Ireland maintain their form in the meltdown conditions of the Six Nations, they will win it. Not perhaps with a grand slam, but worthily. There. A clear prediction. Stand by for it to turn to mush.
