after a two week break, the 2017 rbs six nations gets back underway this weekend with a bang. vern cotter’s scotland and rob howley’s wales get this round of fixtures kicked off with a huge match at murrayfield stadium. later in the day, guy noves’ france travel to dublin to take on jose schmidt’s ireland.
on sunday, top play bottom, as eddie jones’ england welcome conor o’shea’s italy to twickenham. after two games, the english sit a whopping eight points above the italians in the six nations table.
ireland are second on six points, with wales, france and scotland all tied on five. this competition is already shaping up to be an extremely tight tournament, with each nation capable of beating the other.
with our rbs six nations live odds comparison, betting tips, best odds, predictions, analysis and much more, we’ll be doing our very best to try and win you some money on the rugby union this weekend!
scotland have had a solid start to their tournament, as they followed up their superb opening weekend win over ireland by falling to a narrow defeat to the french. as for wales, they conceded late to lose 21-16 to england in cardiff. these two are dead level in the table, sitting on five points each.
before losing to the english, wales had eased to a 33-7 win at the stadio olimpico in rome. scotland were outstanding against the irish in week 1, with stuart hogg inspiring the scots to a 27-22 victory. although they were beaten in paris in their following match, cotter’s men gave a very good account of themselves at the stade de france.
looking at the betting odds, there’s nothing to split these two. wales are available at 10/11 with coral, whilst the scots are the same price at betfred. meanwhile, you can get the draw at 25/1 with betfair and others in our odds comparison.
considering how their tournaments have gone so far, this fixture is a really difficult one to call. wales may have the players, but scotland’s spirit is second to none, especially on home soil. with that said, we predict the scots to nick this one.
the standout match from this round comes from the aviva stadium, as joe schmidt’s ireland welcome guy noves’ france to dublin. both nations got their first win under their belts last time out, as ireland thumped italy 63-10 in rome, while france sealed a hard-fought 22-16 victory over the scots.
being at the aviva, the irish are the fancied team with the bookies. the live odds comparison show the home side as the 1/3 favourites with bet365. after two away games, ireland will be hoping for a big win in front of their expectant but loyal home crowd.
however, after securing their first win of the tournament last time out, france will be looking to build on that. les bleus are available at the tempting price of 13/5 at betfred. you can get the draw at 25/1 (bet365).
you have to say, ireland responded well from their opening day setback, by annihilating the italians on their own patch. even though italy are the weakest link, to score nine converted tries as this level is still an outstanding achievement.
we believe schmidt’s boys will be too strong for france this weekend. however, at 1/3, we feel you are better off backing the home side to win by a margin, and we like the look of william hill’s 4/5 for the irish to win -8.5.
on sunday, the last fixture of the round sees england host italy at twickenham. the english are the overwhelming favourites to seal the win, with the bookies not giving too much away. as for the italians, it will just be a case of keeping the score as low as possible.
england have secured two narrow, hard-fought and priceless victories so far, and will see this one as a chance to get maximum points on the board. after kicking off with a 19-16 win over france, jones’ men followed that up with a late 21-16 triumph over the welsh.
italy, meanwhile, lost 33-7 to wales in their opener, before being smashed 63-10 by ireland in their second game, both in rome. they head to london as the 100/1 underdogs with betfair. you can even get the draw at 100/1 with the same firm.
however, we can’t see anything other than a massive england victory in this one. bet365 are offering evens for the hosts to win -42, which we feel is a price worth taking advantage of.