Italy v France 2013 Six Nations Rugby betting is the first Sunday fixture of this year’s Championship, kicking off on February 3rd. The French will be overwhelming favourites going into the match, and will be looking for a confident win to get their Six Nations off to flyer. The French, heading into the 2012 RBS Six Nations on the back of a World Cup final defeat against New Zealand, were expected to go on and push hard for the title. However, after a solid start, their levels of performances just fell away throughout the tournament. At the end they only managed to pick up two wins out of their five matches. Their performance levels were just lacking, unable to find any kind of cohesive rhythm in top gear. But as is usual with France Six Nations betting, you can just never write them off. They go in to this year’s competition as one of the favourites alongside England to claim the 2013 title.
France last took the Six Nations title back in 2010 and after a solid summer and autumn, they will attract of lot of betting action. France’s biggest performance was a massive 33-6 win over Australia in the autumn, a match in Paris in which they destroyed the Wallabies. That was the very best of the French and they followed it up with wins over Argentina and Samoa and head to the 2013 Six Nations on a five match winning streak. Italy, still yet to really get anywhere near above annual battles for the Six Nations wooden spoon, won one of their matches in last season’s tournament. The Italians had a mixed bag of results in the summer and autumn of 2012. They took wins over Canada and Tonga, but lost against Argentina, New Zealand and then a 19-22 defeat against the Australians. So while they usually battle well, the problem for the Italians is they just don’t have enough qualities at the back or front to sustain challenges over eighty minutes.
So France will start as favourites to take an opening win even though on their last visit to Italy in the 2011 Six Nations, they suffered a huge embarrassment. Italy edged out a famous 22-21 victory on that occasion and that is some positive that the Italians can take. However, that win was the only one for the Italians in the last fourteen encounters between the two nations.
The head to head in Italy v France rugby betting stands at 32 wins for the French and just two for Italy. There has never been a draw between them. On average there is a 19.29 points difference in France’s favour when they meet. France score on average 29.82 points per game against Italy, with the Italians averaging just over ten points per game against France.
Italy v France Six nations Rugby Betting Odds at online bookmaker William Hill
France 1/10, Italy 7/1, Draw 33/1
Looking at handicap betting is the best way to go to find any value and the mark around 12 points is where the line is. A France -12 Handicap is trading at 10/11 with online bookmaker William Hill, who offer up to a free £25 bet for new customers registering an account with them.
