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Ireland v Italy, Sunday, 1:10am AEDT
Round 2 opens with Ireland looking to bounce back from last week's abysmal first half performance against one of the title favourites, and they return home to Dublin where they have won 16 out of 18 Six Nations matches as betting favourites since the start of 2022.
Italy are pursuing only their second ever professional victory against Ireland, with the first and only coming on home soil in 2013. They were agonisingly close of repeating that in Rome last year, losing by only five points courtesy of a Dan Sheehan hat-trick, and come into this week off the back of an impressive performance in driving rain against Scotland last week.
The Azzurri have won back-to-back Six Nations matches only twice in their history and both instances involved Scotland and Wales, the most recent of which was in 2024. It'll be interesting to see how they deal with Ireland's strong lineout, and whether they can improve upon last week's discipline, but a confident and almost unchanged starting XV have the momentum in their favour.
This is the week that Ireland needs to make a serious statement about where they sit in European rugby after losing their world no. 4 ranking to France last week, but whether the six changes made by Andy Farrell will do that remains to be seen. We're anticipating Italy to be very competitive here.
Tip: Italy +17.5 points - 1.90 @ Bet365
Bet explanation: Italy needs to either win, draw or lose by a margin of 1-17 points for this bet to be successful.
Scotland v England, Sunday, 3:40am AEDT
The Calcutta Cup always gets the blood flowing, regardless of how either or both teams are faring, and betting sites are expecting Scotland to put up a big fight despite last weekend's bruising loss in Rome.
Perhaps that's because England lost three of their last four visits to Edinburgh, but this time they're on a 12-game winning streak following last weekend's emphatic demoliton of Wales on home soil. It's not often that they take favouritism on the road with them in this competition, but they did so once in each of the three previous seasons and won on all three occasions - twice in Cardiff and once in Rome.
Like the Italians, they retain a mostly unchanged side that includes the return of inspirational captain Maro Itoje, whilst Scottish coach Gregor Townsend chopped and changed his starting XV four times in a bid to improve upon last week's result.
England's Tommy Freeman extended his try-scoring streak in this competition to a jawdropping seven consecutive matches last weekend, despite switching from 14 to 13, and has been scoring regularly for Northampton as a wing, centre or even a fullback. He's just that unstoppable, so you can back him to score a try with confidence.
Tip: Tommy Freeman to score a try - 2.15 @ Bet365
Bet explanation: Tommy Freeman needs to score a try at any time of the match.
Wales v France, Monday, 2:10am AEDT
Round 2 concludes in Cardiff where Wales are on their longest losing streak to France of the professional era (seven games) as well as their longest home losing streak (nine matches) in Six Nations history.
The French won eight out of ten away games across the previous four seasons and piled on some enormous scores along the way: 42 in Dublin and 73 in Rome last year, 45 on their last trip to Cardiff and 53 on their 2023 visit to Twickenham in London.
France are rightly at unbackable odds to win, and taking the minus on a spread of greater than 30 points is never a comfortable watch particularly if the favourites play at only say 80% of their best, but one thing that appears almost as certain as a French victory is for unstoppable winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey to fill his boots with a brace.
Bielle-Biarrey scored twice against a defence that is much better than what Wales should be offering up, and seven of his last ten try-scoring appearances for either Bordeaux or France saw him go on to get a second if not also a third, so it might be worth loading up on him to score twice instead of just once at a very short price.
Tip: Louis Bielle-Biarrey to score 2+ tries - 2.30 @ Bet365
Bet explanation: Louis Bielle-Biarrey needs to score at least two tries during this match.
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Odds correct at the time of writing, subject to change.
