Six Nations Sunday preview: Wales v Ireland

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We take a look at the best betting opportunities on offer for Wales v Ireland in the 2021 Six Nations.

Wales v Ireland, Sunday 7 February, ko 3.00pm (GMT), Principality Stadium, Cardiff.

Same old, same old Ireland is a criticism levelled at the perennial Rugby World Cup under-achievers but the familiar-looking team they’re putting gout in Cardiff should be good enough to get them off to a winning start against a Wales team still finding itself under Wayne Pivac.

Sunday’s game won’t be the 54-10 blowout to Ireland the first time these teams met on a Six Nations opening weekend in 2002 – a record Round One score – but one where the margins are in single figures.

In tight games at this level, as we expect this to be, the reassurance of knowing exactly what your team-mate is doing is priceless, and Ireland have tried-and-tested combinations such as Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton at half-back and Robbie Henshaw and Garry Ringrose in the centres.

Ireland will do all they can to exploit a starting Wales back-three – Leigh Halfpenny, Hallam Amos and Louis Rees-Zammit – that has never played together and a half-back partnership of Tomos Williams and Dan Biggar that has only been tested three times before. Similarly, the Johnny Williams/George North axis in midfield is an unproven one.

Set-piece and match to Ireland

The game, as always, won’t be won behind the scrum but in the forwards, and Ireland will be confident of commanding dominance in both the lineout and the scrum, areas where Wales have struggled of late.

With possession difficult to come by and a backline that is still getting to know one another, Wales may find scoring opportunities hard to come by.

Dan Biggar’s kicking is unlikely to be enough and we fancy Ireland to take this one and equal their best-ever winning run of five straight wins against Wales in a relatively low-scoring match, possibly by one score.

If that happens, Wales fans will wake up on Monday morning at their lowest ebb, in World Rugby Rankings terms at least, as defeat will cost them ninth place to Japan and see them match their record low of 10th.

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