Alright for 11/1 I’d hope you would agree. Good Luck!!

bookies

Paddy Power are offering a fairly ‘generous’ 2/1 on the three favourites France, England and Scotland to get the result.

If you fancy a bit more value for your money why not have a go on the points handicap. For those of you thinking… What is a points handicap? this explanation should help

For those of you who aren’t Paddy Power are offering this little gem at 8/1;

Italy +21

England -2

Wales +5

For those of you, like myself, are looking upon this weekends rugby as you might look upon this evenings lottery draw might fancy the following, Paddy Power are offering 227/1 on this selection of (fairly unlikely) outcomes;

Be quick though, two of those games kick off in half an hour, good luck!

Whilst doing a bit of research for this post I came across a headline announcing Yachvilli as a doubt for the French. For me this turned a tight game into a nailed on win for Wales. However, the next headline I read tells me that Preistland is out for Wales and has been replaced by James Hook. For me this tips the balance in the other direction. Living in Wales, I know alot about James Hook, mercurial talent, blah de blah de blah de blah. Undoubtedly, he is a talent, but he is also in his late twenties, weak in defence and positionless. There, I said it. Now that’s out of the way, here are the teams:

Wales: Leigh Halfpenny (Cardiff Blues); George North (Scarlets), Jonathan Davies (Scarlets), Jamie Roberts (Cardiff Blues), Shane Williams (Ospreys); James Hook (Perpignan), Mike Phillips (Bayonne); Gethin Jenkins (Cardiff Blues), Huw Bennett (Ospreys), Adam Jones (Ospreys), Luke Charteris (Dragons), Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys), Dan Lydiate (Dragons) Sam Warburton (Cardiff Blues, capt), Toby Faletau (Dragons).

Replacements: Lloyd Burns (Dragons), Paul James (Ospreys), Bradley Davies (Cardiff Blues), Ryan Jones (Ospreys), Lloyd Williams (Cardiff Blues), Stephen Jones (Scarlets), Scott Williams (Scarlets).

France: Maxime Medard; Vincent Clerc, Aurelien Rougerie, Maxime Mermoz, Alexis Palisson; Morgan Parra, Dimitri Yachvili; Jean-Baptiste Poux, William Servat, Nicolas Mas, Pascal Pape, Lionel Nallet, Thierry Dusautoir (capt), Julien Bonnaire, Imanol Harinordoquy.

Replacements (from): Dimitri Szarzewski, Fabien Barcella, Julien Pierre, Louis Picamoles, Francois Trinh-Duc, David Marty, Cedric Heymans, Fulgence Ouedraogo, Jean-Marc Doussain.

Oh and the tip? Though I firmly believe that James Hook will go along way to losing this game for Wales, I still feel the rest of the side have enough to match the French.  The one thing I’m absolutely certain of is that Vincent Clerc will score. Which is a healthy 5/2 over here.

So for tomorrow mornings games:

Namibia +43

Canada +15

Georgia +32

If you are wondering what on earth this means, its easy, even I can understand it, add the handicap to the losing teams points total, if they now win the game, you win the bet. Fantastic. You will get around 1/1 on this with these guys:

“Julie’s got a nasty dose of the Rabo”

Type of thing. Still, back to where we started, my selections for the accumulater, in chronological order:

Leinster, Ulster, Edinburgh, London Irish, Worcester, Leicester, Connacht, Saracens, Newcastle, Dragons, Northampton, Scarlets

Nothing too unusual, no real high risk odds, how much are these twelve results worth? Well if you are prepared to go crazy and wager one pound sterling, you can see a return of £1160, at least you can if you get your money on over at Paddy Power . 1160/1 Madness!! Good Luck.

As rugby betting goes, this is nothing like an absolute certainty, it is probably a bit more exciting than a lottery ticket though, why not have a go?

England are the bookies tip for the title? I can’t really understand why? Nor can I understand how Ireland have got in there as second favourites? Seems very odd indeed. Bear in mind that these odds are for the outright winner, but England are still second favourites for the Grand Slam! Bizarre. They haven’t won a grand slam since 2003, which was the last time they won the championship, yet they start this year as top dogs.

Undoubtedly they could win it, they have had a good Autumn and Wales have been savaged by injury, making the opening night trip to Cardiff a little easier. They could still slip up there though, likewise with Ireland in Italy, it was close enough last year and a couple of more injuries could before Saturday could see them in real trouble.  Wales have serious injury trouble to get over and the omission of Martyn Williams could prove a little premature, Scotland are unlikely to trouble the top of the table either.

Having said all this I still think there is nothing between the top three teams, so my tip for the 2011 Six Nations is for Italy to get a win at 11/8 . The impact of the Italian sides playing in the Magners is bound to bear fruit and I just love an underdog

Ireland: R Kearney (Leinster), S Horgan (Leinster), G Duffy (Connacht), F McFadden (Leinster), A Trimble (Ulster), R O’Gara (Munster) cpt, P Stringer (Munster); M Horan (Munster), S Cronin (Connacht), T Buckley (Munster), E O’Donoghue (Ulster), D Tuohy (Ulster), J Muldoon (Connacht), N Ronan (Munster), C Henry (Ulster).
Replacements: J Flannery (Munster), T Court (Ulster), M O’Driscoll (Munster), D Wallace (Munster), T O’Leary (Munster), J Sexton (Leinster), P Wallace (Ulster).

Barbarians: P Warwick, D Smith, C Lualala, S Rabeni, C Heymans, B James, P Mignoni, D Barnes, S Brits, C Johnston, J Thion, M O’Kelly, A Quinlan, G Smith, X Rush.
Replacements: B August, J White, R So’oialo, M Williams, B Kelleher, J-B Elissalde, F Estebanez or P Sackey

The old axis of Stringer and O’Gara could well ensure we see nothing of the potent talent further out. That said, if the Barbarians start anything like they did against England last week the opportunities might be too blatant to avoid.

Still, with a glass thats always half full, McFadden scoring first and an Ireland winning margain of 6-10 points is well worth a quid at 90/1, or more likely get evens on Shane Horgan rumbling over at any point. bet365 for the odds.

I was so tempted I had a go myself

You've got to be in it to win it

Wales: Lee Byrne (Ospreys); Leigh Halfpenny (Cardiff Blues), James Hook (Ospreys), Jamie Roberts (Blues), Shane Williams (Ospreys); Stephen Jones (Scarlets), Richard Rees (Blues); Paul James, Huw Bennett, Adam Jones (Ospreys), Bradley Davies, Deiniol Jones (Blues), Jonathan Thomas (Ospreys), Martyn Williams (Blues), Ryan Jones (Ospreys, capt) Replacements: Ken Owens (Scarlets), Rhys Gill (Saracens), Luke Charteris (Newport Gwent Dragons), Sam Warburton (Blues), Mike Phillips (Ospreys), Andrew Bishop (Ospreys) , Tom Shanklin (Blues).

France: Clement Poitrenaud (Toulouse); Benjamin Fall (Bayonne), Mathieu Bastareaud (Stade Francais), Yannick Jauzion (Toulouse), Alexis Palisson (Brive); Francois Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), Morgan Parra (Clermont Auvergne); Thomas Domingo (Clermont Auvergne), William Servat (Toulouse), Nicolas Mas (Perpignan), Lionel Nallet (Racing-Metro), Pascal Pape (Stade Francais), Thierry Dusautoir (Toulouse, capt), Julien Bonnaire (Clermont Auvergne), Imanol Harinordoquy (Biarritz).Replacements: Dimitri Szarzewski (Stade Francais), Jean-Baptiste Poux (Toulouse), Julien Pierre (Clermont Auvergne), Alexandre Lapandry (Clermont Auvergne), Frederic Michalak (Toulouse), David Marty (Perpignan), Julien Malzieu (Clermont Auvergne).

Well, well or oui, oui. This has got game of the tournament written all over it. Gatland has thankfully managed to keep his gob shut all week and with the emotive victory over Scotland behind them Wales may be in with a chance. They will have to raise their game considerably though, entertaining as it was, they should have lost a fortnight ago. Alongside of this they need the French to be somewhere way beneath the level that they played at last time out. Which, thankfully for the Welsh, they may well be.

Tip: Double Result: France-Wales 8/1 @bet365

Italy Vs Scotland 13:30, 27/02/2010

Italy (Squad): Matias Aguero (Saracens) Mauro Bergamasco (Stade Francais) Mirco Bergamasco (Stade Francais) Riccardo Bocchino (Femi CZ Rovigo-) Marco Bortolami (Gloucester RFC)Gonzalo Canale (Clermont-Auvergne)Pablo Canavosio (MPS Viadana)Martin Castrogiovanni (Leicester Tigers) Lorenzo Cittadini (Benetton Treviso)Carlo Antonio Del Fava (MPS Viadana) Paul Derbyshire (Petrarca Padova)Gonzalo Garcia (Benetton Treviso) Quintin Geldenhuys (MPS Viadana)Leonardo Ghiraldini (Benetton Treviso) – captain Craig Gower (Bayonne) Andrea Masi (Racing Metro Paris)Luke McLean (Benetton Treviso) Fabio Ongaro (Saracens) Salvatore Perugini (Bayonne) Kaine Paul Robertson (MPS Viadana) Alberto Sgarbi (Benetton Treviso) Josh Sole (MPS Viadana) Tito Tebaldi (Plusvalore Gran Parma) Alessandro Zanni (Benetton Treviso)

Scotland: H Southwell (Stade Francais); S Danielli (Ulster), M Evans (Glasgow), G Morrison (Glasgow), S Lamont (Scarlets); D Parks (Glasgow), C Cusiter (Glasgow, capt); A Jacobsen (Edinburgh), R Ford (Edinburgh), E Murray (Northampton), J Hamilton (Edinburgh), A Kellock (Glasgow), K Brown (Glasgow), J Barclay (Glasgow), J Beattie (Glasgow).
Replacements: S Lawson (Gloucester), A Dickinson (Gloucester), N Hines (Leinster), A Strokosch (Gloucester), M Blair (Edinburgh), P Godman (Edinburgh), N De Luca (Edinburgh).

The Scot’s must see this as their chance to shine and deservedly so. I can see nothing more than a healthy victory for them.

Tip: Handicap Scotland -11.5 19/10 @bet365

England Vs Ireland 16:00 27/02/2010

England: D Armitage (London Irish); Mark Cueto (Sale), Mathew Tait (Sale), Riki Flutey (Brive), Ugo Monye (Harlequins); Jonny Wilkinson (Toulon), Danny Care (Harlequins); Tim Payne (Wasps), Dylan Hartley (Northampton), Dan Cole (Leicester), Simon Shaw (Wasps), Steve Borthwick (Saracens, captain), James Haskell (Stade Francais), Lewis Moody (Leicester), Nick Easter (Harlequins).
Replacements: Lee Mears (Bath), David Wilson (Bath), Louis Deacon (Leicester), Joe Worsley (Wasps), Paul Hodgson (London Irish), Toby Flood (Leicester), Ben Foden (Northampton).

Ireland: G Murphy (Leicester), T Bowe (Ospreys), B O’Driscoll (Leinster) capt, G D’Arcy (Leinster), K Earls (Munster), J Sexton (Leinster), T O’Leary (Munster), C Healy (Leinster), R Best (Ulster), J Hayes (Munster), D O’Callaghan (Munster), P O’Connell (Munster), S Ferris (Ulster), D Wallace (Munster), J Heaslip (Leinster).Replacements: S Cronin (Connacht), T Buckley (Munster), L Cullen (Leinster), S Jennings (Leinster), E Reddan (Leinster), R O’Gara (Munster), A Trimble (Ulster)

The waiting is almost over. England come in after back to back victories Ireland with a disappointingly heavy defeat, it really could go either way. I’m not a subscriber to the view that England have a particularly poor selection of players just that they are playing poorly together, playing poorly but winning also. 

Twickenham is an interesting choice for Sextons 6Nations debut, particularly lining up alongside the much maligned O’Leary. Deccie the Leg is so ever so keen on his panel you might think he would excercise this theory at 9. I’m certainly not going to question his judgement on this or Murphy’s inclusion juts hope that come 6pm saturday I leave Twickenham with a smile on my face, I’ve seen them play here 6 times and have yet to see an Irish victory, I’m not sure I could take another loss.

Tip: Ireland by 1-5 points 5/1 @bet365