Well the big rugby championship is back again. The 2017 Six Nations Championship will warm up the cold February/March afternoons with some heated action out on the pitches. With fifteen matches to come over the next few weeks, with the competition running from February 4th through to March 18th, there is going to be some big tension and drama along the way. For the first time there will be a change to the points system through the bonus point system which you commonly find across other professional rugby tournament.
There are four points for a win and two for a draw, while a team can pick up a bonus point for scoring four or more tries in a game, or if a losing teams suffers defeat by seven points or fewer. So that adds a new twist to things and there is a bonus three points on offer for any team that lands the Grand Slam (winning all five matches) and that has been done to ensure that if anyone does pull it off, and it is no easy feat of course, then that team will be guaranteed to win the Championship because of the bonus points.
[get_wp_related_posts_short]
So some subtle changes for the 123rd edition of the tournament and it is England who are defending champions and who are going into the tournament as outright favorites at a price of 4/5 with Paddy Power. After a successful 2016 under new head coach Eddie Jones, this is going to be new pressure for the English, in handling their position as favourites in matches and indeed, the tournament. Will they deliver again or will the pressure from Ireland see the men in green sneak across the line?
France are supposedly going through a new renaissance and are looking to the future after some tough times for them, while much talk has been made of Scotland’s rising stock under Vern Cotter, who will be leaving the Scots in the summer. Wales are the dark horse this time around with the ability to spring a surprise and raise their game, while leaving Italy once again as the rank outsiders for the Six Nations 2017.
Six Nations Betting 2017 Outright Winner Odds
| Rugby Team | Betting Odds |
|---|---|
| England | 4/5 |
| Ireland | 9/4 |
| Wales | 7/1 |
| France | 12/1 |
| Scotland | 20/1 |
| Italy | 1000/1 |
Six Nations 2017 Promotion
The 10 Up – You Win promotion at Paddy Power for the RBS Six Nations is a fantastic product to enjoy. The bookie you out as a winner straight if the team that you have backed in the match outright goes 10 points up at any stage in the game. It doesn’t matter if the teams wins the match or not, you get paid. However, if they do go 10 Up and you get paid out and then they do win the match, you won’t be paid out twice. There is no maximum stake on this fantastic early payout promotion which applies to all Six Nations matches this season. Register an account with Paddy Power and earn up to £30 worth of free bets as a welcome bonus from them.
England 4/5
The English have pace and power all over the place and no other side in the championship can call upon the quality of depth that they have. That is going to be a big factor for them. It will be most interesting to see who England react when they do come under some pressure and you know that they will at some point, and most likely that is going to happen out on the road in Wales or Ireland. England go to Lansdowne Road on the final weekend in what could be a high pressure shootout for the title. The bonus points could be crucial for England here because they have more scoring power than anyone else and going into the championship it is hard to see them losing by big margins. After their clean sweep in their tour of Australia last year on top of their Six Nations success, they are the ones to beat.
Ireland 9/4
You can’t exactly ignore the threat of the Irish this season again. Back in November last year they took a momentous, historic win over the All Blacks in Chicago. They turned around and gotten beaten back by New Zealand afterwards, but the grit, resolve and adventure shown in taking them down,that will have just added fuel to their own self-belief. The Irish control games very well, they really do and they keep the ball and just seem to make the right decision time and time again. Crucially perhaps they face both France and England on home soil in this season’s championship and that has to give them a little bit of an edge you would think. Like England, their defining match before the weekend could be how they handle a trip to Wales.
Wales 7/1
The Welsh are going to have to find something extra, something a great deal extra to take the Championship this year. They don’t quite seem to have transitioned into the full new era that they are heading to yet as established players are falling down the pecking order and the replacements coming in haven’t had enough time to get everything together. The Welsh get an easy start against Italy and do go at home against both Ireland and England. However, it is hard seeing them get the better of both of them in one season and there for the Welsh may well have to settle for third place. You would have bigger concerns over their defence than that of England or Ireland in the context of the overall tournament.
Scotland 20/1
So this will be Vern Cotter’s last shot at the Six Nations with Scotland. The Scots won two games in the Championship last season, quite a coup for them and punters will be wondering if they have anything new up their sleeve this season. The Scots have more attacking ability and more players focused in on their game than they have had for some time and that has created some buzz about them being as good as the 1999 team which won the Five Nations. That’s a lot to prove though for them out on the field and even though they were more competitive last season converting enough points in games out on the pitch against organised defences is going to be a problem for them still.
Italy 1000/1
One thing that we can be assured of is that Italy won’t be mounting a title challenge. They actually have a pretty good fixture list ahead of the as they are at home against Wales, Ireland and France to give themselves a shot at some glory. There won’t be too much on offer for them though is is likely because the depth and quality just isn’t there. They may step up and push a couple of teams close, but it’s hard to see them collecting more than one win, if that, in the Championship.
Six Nations Stats
Because of the bonus points, the Six Nations evolves again. The Six nations format, when Italy joined the party, began in 2000 and so it went through 17 editions of just the regular points system. England won the most matches of the 85 that each team played in that sequence, with 60 of their 85 played ending in victories, followed by Ireland who claimed 55 wins and then France with 54. England and France both won the title five times overall with Wales winning four and Ireland collecting the three titles.
What of Grand Slam wins along the way? Well it was landed nine times along the way in those seventeen editions. France did it three times, Wales did it three times, England did it twice (including in 2016) and Ireland pulled it off once. It has been claimed in just two of the last six editions of the Six Nations. As for the Six Nation wooden spoon, Italy lead the way with eleven, Scotland have finished bottom four times, with Wales and France have come home bottom of the pile once each.
Six Nations Betting 2017 Outright Winner Prediction
England are heading into the competition as favourites and with all the power and form on their side. However, there has to be some value in Ireland getting through and getting very close to the title because of the fixture list. Having to host both France and England could be telling at the end of the day in this one. They won’t give up big margin defeats to anyone and if it all boils down to them having to beat England in Dublin on the final weekend for the championship, would you put it past them?
