Just one week into the Six Nations Championship 2023 and already it is shaping up to be a fantastic tournament. Scotland asserted themselves over big brother England yet again with an impressive win at Twickenham, while Italy gave France a scare and Ireland showed why they’re the bookies’ favourite to win the competition this year.
Heading into Round Two, many punters are picking this to be the round of the tournament that decides the eventual champion. The headline clash is between World No. 1 and No. 2 Ireland and France, while Scotland and Wales also fight it out before England looks to bounce back against Italy.
We preview these matches and breakdown the best bets to make on Round Two of the Six Nations with odds from bookmaker William Hill
※ Current Odds Date & Time: February 9th, 4:00 A.M. (GMT)
Similar to last week, bookmaker William Hill is picking that two of the three matches this week will be tight. All of the home sides are favoured, with Ireland and Scotland moderate favourites against France and Wales, while England is well ahead against Italy.
The round will begin with the match that everyone has been waiting for since the 2023 Six Nations fixtures were released—Ireland vs. France. Ireland is listed as a 1.40 favourite to win here with France sitting at 3.00. While Ireland is playing at home and is the current World No. 1 team, France will fancy proving the bookies wrong here. They are on a 13-match winning streak and have won their past three matches against Ireland, including in Dublin in 2021. Admittedly, Ireland looked like the better team last week beating Wales by 24 points while France barely got home by six against Italy.
France will take some stopping and with odds of 3.00, we say back Les Blues to make it 14/14 against Ireland this weekend.
Looking at the other two matches this weekend, Scotland vs. Wales has similar odds to Ireland vs. France with the home side favoured 1.36 to 3.25. Scotland was impressive last week beating England 29-23, while Wales was woeful in losing at home 34-10 to Ireland. However, Wales has won 23 of their past 26 games against Scotland and held the score to 7-7 in the second half against Ireland. We expect Scotland will still win but say this will be much closer than the bookies are putting it with Scotland scraping home by a few points.
Rounding out the weekend, Italy will travel to London to take on England. William Hill has this match at 1.09 to 7.00 in favour of the home side and these odds seem fair. Italy tried their hardest last weekend and while impressive in defeat, they are likely to be a little deflated this weekend. England, however, will be fired up to get a win for their fans and new coach and should win this one comfortably.
