The glorious event that is the Six Nations has come around again, and the coming weekends are better for it.
We start off with defending Six Nations champions Wales hosting perennial underdogs Italy.
Wales are strong favourites to win this game, and we’ll be astonished if they don’t. But the old coaching team of Gatland and Edwards are no longer at the helm, and the players could take time to settle into the new regime. Additionally, Italy are traditionally fast starters, before blowing up in the final minutes of the match.
We fully expect Wales to win at full time, but will take Italy with a 11 handicap lead to be ahead at halftime.
Later Saturday sees Ireland host Scotland. These two teams met in the World Cup in Japan, with Ireland winning going away. Scotland have a poor record away from home, and especially in Dublin.
We can’t see anything but a home win here, and are happy to take Ireland to overcome a 14 point handicap.
The final game of this weekend is on Sunday, with World Cup finalists England traveling to Paris to take on a new look France.
England were very impressive in their semifinal final in Japan in beating the All Blacks, but froze in the final. So it kind of depends which England turn up!
This is a new look France, and we expect them to fly at the men in white, posing all sorts of questions. England didn’t respond to well in the World Cup final when pushed out of their comfort zone, and we expect them to have to come up with answers again.
If the impressive England turn up then a four point handicap to make up would be a steal, but we’ll take France to edge a tight one.
Recommendations:
Italy to win first half with 11 point handicap, Ireland to overcome 14 point handicap, and France to win with 4 point start as a treble, 1 pt, at approximately 13/2, Paddy Power
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