Six Nations Round Two Preview

After a thrilling first round of the Six Nations Championship, the tournament returns for the second gameweek in another bid for teams to cement themselves at the top end of the table.

We preview the second round below.

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Scotland v France – Saturday 2.15pm

Scotland produced an immaculate first-half performance in their opening game against Wales but the wheels seemed to fall off in the second half, conceding 26 points – a couple of points shy of what would have been the biggest Six Nations comeback in history. However, they managed to scrape four points from the game, putting them third in the table behind England and Ireland. There is no doubt Scotland will want to kick France when they’re down and take full advantage of their lack in confidence.

France faced favourites Ireland in the first round and suffered their biggest loss to them on home soil, which was a bitter pill to swallow in the opening game of their campaign and slammed the breaks on their Grand Slam chances. Les Bleus are also without their former talisman and captain Antoine Dupont, so this clash against Scotland could be more even than initially anticipated before Dupont’s retirement from Rugby Union.

France are favourites at 8/15 with Scotland outsiders at 6/4, but there’s a good chance of a shock result here, given France have showed visible weakness in their transitional side and, putting a line through the second half, Scotland have displayed how potent a side they can be.

England v Wales – Saturday 4.45pm

England didn’t have the ideal opening fixture when they travelled to Rome to only just pick up a win. Italy fought hard and were winning at the half-time whistle, but England powered through and managed to return home with the first win in their opening game for 5 years. England will want to capitalise on their initial success on home soil at Twickenham, which should be a serious advantage against the Welsh.

Arguably the biggest heart showed by any team in the first round was by Wales, who went into the changing room at half-time 20-0 down and managed to find it within them to go back out there and fight back, falling short by one point as the game finished 26-27 in favour of Scotland. Given they lost their first game, Warren Gatland will hope his men can step up to the occasion from the first whistle in order to give them the best chance at staying in the championship race.

Despite Wales’ marginal loss to Scotland, they are hefty outsiders at 4/1, with England trading at 1/6 as odds-on favourites. One would imagine that based off their first-round success and the fact they are returning to Twickenham justifies such odds, but we’ve seen what Wales can do in just 45 minutes and should they start firing from the word go then we could have a proper battle on our hands.