Ireland responded to their loss on the opening weekend of the Six Nations season at Murrayfield against Scotland with an easy victory over Italy in Rome. The Italians may well have not been on the pitch as the Irish picked up the bonus point for the win as well, leaving them in second place behind England in the table. So a big week for the Irish to keep their title hopes alive as they play host to France who are just the one point back.
The French suffered that narrow loss against England at Twickenham on the opening week of action and then they followed that up with a gritty home win over Scotland. The French have looked a much better unit this go around and they won’t give the Irish an easy afternoon. The French were particularly impressive up front in the pack against England and it was on fire as well as they put in a heavy shift up front with their bruising, disruptive tactics to get past Scotland.
There is a big threat from the French pack but overall, do they have enough to land a win in Dublin as they did back in 2011? Probably not. The Irish are strong at home and they haven’t lost a home game in the championship since England won there four years ago. With the Grand Slam and the Triple Crown going out of the window on the opening weekend, the Irish are probably going to be playing with a little less pressure here.
So that is likely to benefit them and they bring Jonny Sexton back at fly half and he has three tries in eight games against France. He could play a key role because France are very forward dominated and there are going to be gaps beyond that for the Irish to expose. France took a win over Ireland in Paris last season and that snapped a five game winless streak that they were on against the Irish,and Les Bleus have never lost back to back matches in Ireland.
Ireland have shipped only six points in total in second half action in this season’s RBS Six Nations so expect this to be tight. France are on a four match losing streak away from home in the Six Nations and the only wins that they have put on the board out on the pad in the Six Nations since 2011 have been against either Scotland or Italy. So they haven’t been great travellers but the French will put up a strong enough performance to go for a France +8 handicap at Paddy Power which is a price of even money.
Ireland v France Six Nations Odds
Ireland 3/10, France 11/4, Draw 25/1
Online betting site Paddy Power are running a 10 Up -You Win RBS Six Nations Rugby Betting promotion. They will pay you out as a winner immediately if your team goes 10 points up at any stage in the game. This offer applies to pre-match singles in the match betting market only and there is no maximum stake on the offer either! This applies to all games in the Six Nations this weekend only (February 11th/12th).
