Sir Ian McGeechan: New Year's resolutions for the home nations Joe Launchbury will keep progressing, too - he is a natural ball-carrier. But the key now is to utilise all these players as best as possible. That is a decision for the coaches to make, so that the players know when and where they are going to be doing their heavy-duty carrying. But these two resolutions are entwined because in order for the forwards to carry effectively, they need to do it off a powerful backline carrier, not just off a forward base. That is where Burrell comes in, and that is what, say, Wales do so well, with their forwards carrying off the likes of Jamie Roberts, George North and Alex Cuthbert. But the bigger picture is that England are in decent shape, even if I would have to say that at the moment they are second to Wales. Ireland The resolution has to be that they can draw every last ounce of high-level performance from their veterans like Brian O'Driscoll, Paul O'Connell and Gordon D'Arcy. When you look at their squad, they have an awful lot of experience. In fact of the four home countries, they probably have the most of all. It is a question of how they mix that with the younger players being introduced under Joe Schmidt, whose emphasis on a passing game, so successful when he was at Leinster, was starting to show at the end of the autumn internationals. I have been hugely impressed by Schmidt since he assumed control of the team following Declan Kidney's departure. He is a good coach. Ireland need to play with tempo and he transformed Leinster because he made them a much better passing team, so I think he will want to do the same with Ireland. If you know that you can pass accurately and quickly when it matters, you make the most of opportunities. O'Connell, as everyone knows, is a wonderful rallying point and influence on the team, and Ireland simply are not the same proposition when he is not playing. He galvanises any pack in which he plays, as he showed in that heroic last-minute defeat against New Zealand in the autumn. D'Arcy is playing as well as I have ever seen him do, and that will take the pressure O'Driscoll in his last campaign. O'Driscoll has often carried the Ireland team's attack in the past and he can still be a match-winner, but he will require help. Rob Kearney is playing superbly too at full back, so he can help too. Wales This resolution is all about fitness. That is the fitness of key players in making the field in the first place - for instance can captain Sam Warburton shrug off the shoulder injury suffered against Australia to make the start of the Six Nations? And can such a key player like Adam Jones stay fit? But it is also about the conditioning of the players coming back from their club rugby in France. It was noticeable in the autumn internationals how someone like flanker Dan Lydiate, who has moved from Newport Gwent Dragons to Racing Métro, appeared off the pace a little. Warren Gatland and the other Wales coaches have mentioned this fact publicly - that they think the players in France lose the edge off their fitness. They saw it with Gethin Jenkins last season at Toulon, and Mike Phillips at Bayonne. He is at Racing Métro now, and I have said before that I think he is one of the best nines in world rugby. But he needs to be fit to be so. Wales's game plan requires very high levels of fitness, especially amongst the forwards, who are expected time and time again to "get around the corner," as they say these days. It is why Wales often start campaigns slowly. It is a step-up in intensity and fitness from regional level, and it takes time for the players to adjust. It takes those in France even longer to do that, it seems. You only have to look at Wales" shocking start against Ireland at home in the first match of last year's campaign for evidence. Luckily for them they face Italy at home in their first match this season, so that will definitely be a bonus for them. But then they travel to Ireland for their second match, which is sure to be a crunch game, given what happened on the British and Irish Lions tour, with Gats not picking O'Driscoll for the final Test and all the furore that followed. Scotland To score tries. Or rather to find ways of scoring tries. I think they have probably got as good a balance in their squad as they have had for five or six years. But they just have to work so hard to finish things off. They can keep ball and go through phases, but that killer blow is often lacking. They have a strong front five, where Jim Hamilton gives them real attitude. Lock Richie Gray really needs to come again as he did so impressively in last year's Six Nations. He is another player out in France, at Castres, whose fitness levels might need monitoring. And they have a back row where there is competition. They have some real options there, with Alasdair Strokosch, Kelly Brown, John Barclay, Johnnie Beattie and David Denton. They are all good players, and whoever plays can form a back row that can be really influential in how Scotland play. They have taken too long to get their moves working in the backs. They have a back three in Stuart Hogg, Sean Maitland and Tim Visser who can be dangerous, but it has been in midfield where they have struggled to nail the balance between a kicking and passing game. Their decision-making there needs to be much sharper. They need to work on their offloading game, because recently every tackle has become a ruck. They have the players to do it, but it is just a case of stringing it all together, of recognising the situations where, say, a defender is isolated and the momentum can be continued in a movement. At the moment they are clearly standing fourth amongst the four home nations, but it should not be all gloom and doom. And that is not just a Scot talking. We have England at home in the second round of matches. That is always something to look forward to ...