The climax to the Six Nations will have all fans on their toes
Ireland returned to Six Nations action winning their match in hand and delivering a huge win over Italy to give them a chance of winning the title in the final matchday. Ireland were big favourites to win their home match against the Italians and they duly obliged with a crushing performance winning by 50 points to 17.
Ireland got their bonus point as well as the victory to lead the table going into the final match away in France and will need a performance of a lifetime to win in the French capital to not only win but get the bonus point to hold onto the lead at the top of the table.
Hugo Keenan scored two tries in the win over Italy and Jonny Sexton, as well as four others, scored tries to give the Irish huge confidence going into the final set of matches. Mr reliable Jonny Sexton scored 5 conversions to add to his all-time total points for Ireland and he will be a huge player against France as they will need all his experience to land the title.
Bookmaker has the odds ahead of the Six Nations finale and the current title favourites are England at 4/11 (1.36) -136, then come Ireland at 10/3 (4.33) +333 and after that France at 16/1 (17.0) +1600.
Looking at favourites England, they started the campaign in the Six Nations in poor form losing to France in Paris 24-17 which was likely to have been a World Cup Final hangover as this was England’s first match since the Final defeat to South Africa. That huge disappointment seemed to carry over into the opening Six Nations match, but the French capitalised and performed well, especially defensively to stop England attacks.
England then needed to dig really deep when they won 13-6 in a really tight match away in Scotland but the courage and determination which saw England beat New Zealand in the World Cup Semi-Final was there to see and then after getting back to winning ways, England then went onto defeat Ireland and Wales to put themselves in a great position to win this seasons’ title.
France were in prime position to not only win the Six Nations but also to deliver a Grand Slam as after beating England, they beat Italy and Wales impressively. However, it all came unstuck in Scotland as the improving Scots dominated many parts of the match winning 28-17. This could go down as the match of the tournament as The Scots surprised the French against all the odds.
This victory for the Scots gave their rivals England the chance to seal the tournament in the final match of this season’s tournament.
The final matches of the tournament start with Wales hosting Scotland. Wales come into this on the back of four consecutive losses so will be looking to bounce back and end the tournament with a victory and then mount a big campaign next year. Scotland on the other hand are playing some great Rugby and will look to make it four wins on the spin to end their campaign with a bang and one of the best points tallies in recent years. The current sportsbook odds on this match have Wales as 1 /2 (1.5) -150 favourites to win the match with visitors Scotland a value price of 9/4 (3.25) + 225 to stun the Welsh.
The match to seal the title is likely to come in Italy as England are huge favourites to win the match and the handicap odds are England (-30 points) to beat Italy at odds of 10/11 (1.91) -191 so you can see from this England are likely to win very comfortably and it will take a miracle for the hosts to compete.
The final match of the tournament and the closest in terms of odds have France as slight favourites to beat Ireland at odds of 11/17 (1.64) -164 and the visiting Ireland can be bet on the sportsbook at 7/4 (2.75) + 275, but depending on the England result, the odds may change going into this match.
