- France to beat Scotland – by 6-10pts (11/2 Paddy Power, Betfair)
- Melvyn Jaminet – Player of the Match (16/1, various)
- England/England – half-time/full-time (4/9, Betfred, Betfair)
- Kyle Sinckler – Player of the Match (66/1 Skybet, Boyle Sports)
- Jamison Gibson-Park – anytime try-scorer (12/5, Paddy Power)
The third round of the Six Nations gets underway at Murrayfield, a fairly fallow venue of late for France.
Scotland have beaten Les Bleus there in the last three Six Nations matches and, this season, home advantage is clearly counting for something with five of the first six matches ending in favour of the team in the more familiar surroundings.
However, Scotland’s pack has been hit by injuries to key forwards like Rory Sutherland, Jamie Ritchie and Matt Fagerson, and against a big visiting pack, that may take its toll, certainly in the collision stakes.
Ordinarily there isn’t much between the teams in terms of the winning margin but this French team should be good enough to win by a couple of scores.
England expects
One of the more incredible stats coming out in advance of the England v Wales match – the later of the two Saturday kick-offs – is that the visitors have only led once at half-tine in the last 25 meetings at Twickenham.
With Wales’ attack firing blanks, they are not equipped to chase games, but by the law of averages, it looks like that is what they are going to have to do.
England’s pack should provide a solid platform for Marcus Smith to orchestrate proceedings, whereas Dan Biggar is likely to have to play off scraps and rely on three points at a time through penalties.
Without the game-breaking ability of Louis Rees-Zammit, Wales are unlikely to score enough points to break their seven-year itch at Twickenham and we expect England to win. Perhaps not by 14 points, as the handicap would suggest, now that Manu Tuilagi is out injured, but they won’t be far off.
Tuilagi’s absence deprives England of a strong ball carrier and they will look to the likes of Kyle Sinckler to fill the void. The prop scored last time out against Italy and should catch the eye again with his bullocking runs supporting his usually excellent set-piece work.
Trying times for Italy
Ireland have scored 50+ points in each of their last three home games against Italy in the Six Nations, with 18 different Irish players crossing for a combined 24 tries in that period. So you would expect them to overcome the -39 handicap as well as providing some decent-priced winners in the anytime try-scorer market.
One that catches our eye is scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park. Whether he starts or come off the bench, the Leinster scrum-half is always alive to an opportunity and will be looking to exploit any gaps in and around the ruck.
