Six Nations Weekend Preview

By Team BlueSq.com on 13 March 2010 at 02:31

Blue Square’s Neil Lucas picks out the value from this weekend’s round of Six Nations Matches



Ireland v Wales

Brian O’Driscoll celebrates his 100th cap for his country when Ireland meet Wales on Saturday, and let’s hope he goes better than Chris Paterson did when the Scot was subbed off in the first half of his centenary game against Wales with an injury last month. Still in the hunt for Six Nations honours, ‘BOD’ will lead his men into the game as strong favourites for a win which would give them at least something to play for against Scotland next weekend. 2/7 is the price of the Irish prevailing at Croke Park, and they are 10/11 to get the win by more than eight points on the handicap. That’s too many for my liking, and I’d rather be on the ‘plus’ side of that. Coming from a 20-point half time deficit against France last time out, Wales stormed back to give the Six Nations leaders an almighty scare, and if they started playing from the 1st minute rather than the 41st in each of their games, the tournament might look very different to how it does right now. Although they are out of the running as far as the tournament is concerned, Wales look a fair bet at 5/2 to pull off the away win (something they did the last time these two met at Croke Park), and I also couldn’t put anyone off them at 10/11 in receipt of the +8 handicap start.

Scotland v England

Arguably the tournament’s two out-of-form teams do battle for the Calcutta Cup later on Saturday evening. You couldn’t really trust either side with your hard earned cash based on their performances in the last round, and you’d certainly be taking a chance backing favourites England at 1/2. That’s not to say you’d want to be on Scotland at 13/8 either, given how easily Italy put them to bed last time, so perhaps it’s time for the first draw of the tournament priced at 16/1. Neither team is known for its try-scoring prowess so expect the boot to take over for the main part, and that might bring the best out of Jonny Wilkinson, who desperately needs to put in a noteworthy performance. Wilko 9/1 to be awarded Man of the Match, but it’s his counterpart Dan Parks who leads the market at 8/1, the Scotland number 10 coming off fine performances on the road in Rome and Cardifff. Look out for Joe Worsley, who is priced at 16/1 having replaced Lewis Moody in the back row for England, as well as Scotland’s Nick de Luca, who is 20/1 getting his first start since November 2008. If England do scrape through (and believe me, it will be a scrape), they are guaranteed to have a at least a chance of nicking the Six Nations title when they go to Paris next weekend, an eventuality for which they are priced at 16/1.

France v Italy

Call me crazy, but I quite like the chances of the Italians in Paris. To keep the score down that is, they don’t have a sniff of beating the tournament’s outstanding team outright, but I think you’ll have worse bets this weekend than the Italians getting 25 points on the handicap at 10/11. As per usual, French coach Marc Lièvremont has fiddled about with his team starting Marc Andreu and Alexis Palisson on the wings as well as dropping the tournament’s outstanding player Mathieu Bastareaud, but as 1/100 favourites, even that might not matter too much. Italy are 20/1 to pull off an enormous shock, but it’s the handicap market where the value has to be had. The Italians have shown themselves to be dogged in defence and no pushovers at this level, which coupled with Lièvremont’s chopping and changing could result in a frustrating afternoon for the home side.

Cashback!

The Six Nations returns this weekend, as do our Tryscorer cashback offers on the following games:


Sat 14.30 – Ireland v Wales

If either Tommy Bowe or Keith Earls score the first try we will refund all losing bets on the ‘First Tryscorer’ market.


Sat 17.00 – Scotland v England

If either Ugo Monye or Mark Cueto score the first try we will refund all losing bets on the ‘First Tryscorer’ market.

Sun 14.30 – France v Italy

If either Marc Andreu or Alexis Palisson score the first try we will refund all losing bets on the ‘First Tryscorer’ market.


Terms & Conditions:

-Max refund £250 per customer

-Includes singles and multiples

-If a named player does not start the match, the replacement player wearing the vacant no.11 or 14 shirt will carry the offer instead.

Author: Neil Lucas

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