After another week off the Six Nations returns for a BIG round of games. It all kicks off with a bang on Saturday when defending champions Ireland welcome France to Dublin. Only Fabien Galthie and his weird beautiful mind can realistically stop Ireland from completing the historic three-peat.
Elsewhere, England will be hoping to crash the party at the top of the table should France beat Ireland as they prepare to face Italy at Twickenham on Sunday. Should France and England both win we’ll go into the final weekend with those two plus Ireland all on three wins and a defeat.
Then we have Scotland and Wales battling it out in the late game on Saturday. Two teams who ultimately will be disappointed with how the table looks at the end of this Six Nations but with positives to take forward. Our marauding loose-head Peter Sharland has his say on the weekend’s games…
Six Nations Betting Tips
Saturday, 2:15pm – Ireland v France
Ireland win, 50+ total points and any player yellow carded
Damian Penaud & Dan Sheehan both to score a try, Sam Prendergast & Thomas Ramos to score 10+ points each
Saturday, 4:45pm – Scotland v Wales
Total Points: Under 48.5
Duhan van der Merwe and Darcy Graham to both score tries
Sunday, 3pm – England v Italy
England to score 10+ points in each half, Italy to score 7+ points in each half
Fin Smith and Paolo Garbisi to score 10+ points each
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Saturday, 2:15pm – Ireland v France
TV: ITV 1/ RTE 2
Ireland win, 50+ total points and any player yellow carded
Damian Penaud & Dan Sheehan both to score a try, Sam Prendergast & Thomas Ramos to score 10+ points each
So as we mentioned earlier, Galthie is just riding his own wave at the moment. He’s unleashed the 7-1 again as France go for broke to keep their championship hopes alive. Ireland meanwhile will be without winger Mack Hansen whilst they’ll also be seeing the final home international game for retiring trio Peter O’Mahony, Cian Healy and Conor Murray.
It should be an absolutely fascinating, enthralling affair and ultimately we fancy Ireland here to not only secure the historic three-peat but also to seal a Grand Slam next week against Italy. But they’ll have to do it the hard way. There will be a lot of points, a lot of back and forth and yes we feel confident that one of the firecrackers on the pitch will get themselves carded.
In terms of the specific players Sam Prendergast and Thomas Ramos seem like solid locks at the moment and Dan Sheehan has had an excellent tournament. The returning Damian Penaud on the wing is the wild card but after missing the win over Italy he’ll be chomping at the bit to show that he deserves in the starting XV of this team.
Saturday, 4:45pm – Scotland v Wales
TV: BBC 1/ Virgin Media 1
Total Points: Under 48.5
Duhan van der Merwe and Darcy Graham to both score tries
This feels like a vital game for Gregor Townsend. After a heartbreaking loss to England at Twickenham Scotland now face a Wales team that looked resurgent against Ireland after making their change in coach. Scotland cannot afford to lose this and we expect them to take care of business.
However it will be a scrappy affair and we expect this one to come under the current points line of 48.5, which seems generous. Furthermore, we really like the Scottish wingers to do the damage with Darcy Graham returning and you can get both him and Duhan van der Merwe to score a try at the boosted Power Price of 3/1.
Sunday, 3pm – England v Italy
TV: ITV 1/ RTE 2
England to score 10+ points in each half, Italy to score 7+ points in each half
Fin Smith and Paolo Garbisi to score 10+ points each
Both teams have changed their full-back for this one and for both it comes as a bit of a surprise. Many may wonder why Steve Borthwick has chosen now to end the Marcus Smith-at-15 experience, while Italy move Ange Capuozzo to full-back as Monty Ioane returns on the wing.
It seems clear how both teams are planning to approach this game. For England they need to win and win big although of course they will know the Ireland v France result by the time of kick-off. Italy have clearly decided to take the game to England and look to be following a similar path to Scotland. For that reason even if England’s title hopes are ended by an Ireland win we expect both teams to play hard and that should result in points.
With Marcus dropping to the bench Fin Smith will take over all kicking duties for England and hasn’t seemed fazed by that at all. On the other side Garbisi is always a good bet to record points for Italy. We like them both to get into double-digits here.
Six Nations Rugby Betting Tips
Saturday, 2:15pm – Ireland v France
Ireland win, 50+ total points and any player yellow carded
Damian Penaud & Dan Sheehan both to score a try, Sam Prendergast & Thomas Ramos to score 10+ points each
Saturday, 4:45pm – Scotland v Wales
Total Points: Under 48.5
Duhan van der Merwe and Darcy Graham to both score tries
Sunday, 3pm – England v Italy
England to score 10+ points in each half, Italy to score 7+ points in each half
Fin Smith and Paolo Garbisi to score 10+ points each
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