Six Nations Week 4 Preview: France looking to keep Grand Slam hopes alive while England host Ireland

The Six Nations returns for round four this weekend as holders Wales take on Grand Slam chasers France.

Meanwhile, England and Ireland go head-to-head at Twickenham, with the victors seeking to take advantage of any potential slip-up from France.

We preview the round four match-ups below.

Wales v France

France put in a storming performance against Scotland last time out in Edinburgh, scoring a huge six tries; sweet revenge after their defeat in Paris last year. This weekend, the French are on the move again to the Principality Stadium in the hope of a clean sweep. They are currently leading this year’s Six Nations with 14 points, putting them three ahead of the Irish.

Wales have been warned this week of the need for physicality in the upcoming game on Friday evening and they are the 16/5 underdogs against the French team, who are on a roll for another victory.

Last week Wales got off to a sleepy start against England and will need to be switched on both mentally and physically from the start if they are to have a chance of holding off the strong opposition. Flanker Josh Navidi is among a number of Welsh changes for the game, having spent the last five months recovering from a shoulder injury, and he’ll be eager to make an impact.

Following Les Bleus’ win against Scotland, France are unsurprisingly the 2/7 favourites to win the match, and they could prove too much for Wales to handle as they continue their search for a first Six Nations title since 2010.

England v Ireland

After holding off a Wales fightback at Twickenham last weekend, with the boot of Marcus Smith helping them to kick for victory, England head back to HQ to face Ireland in a historic battle.

Alongside France, England and Ireland both still retain the chance of winning the Six Nations, meaning both teams will be desperately seeking a win to boost their points on the table. Ireland are only one point ahead of England after three games, and will be hoping for the luck of the shamrock to extend that lead, less than a week before St Patrick’s Day.

Eddie Jones’ men will hope to have both Tom Curry and Alex Dombrandt back in their forwards line-up this week. Curry came off at half-time against Wales after failing a head injury assessment, and Dombrandt has been self-isolating.

Ireland, on the other hand, welcome back Iain Henderson to the squad again as a lock. They’ll be disappointed to miss out on Jordan Larmour’s speed after he picked up a hip injury in Leinster’s win over Benetton last weekend.

With a strong and fluid attacking pack, Ireland are the favourites to win at 4/5, despite England’s home advantage. Meanwhile, the hosts are the underdogs with odds of 21/20 for victory.

Italy v Scotland

Italy suffered yet another heavy defeat last time out in Dublin when they were down to 13 men and 57-6 on the scoreboard, and so will hope for better this weekend against Scotland.

Against Ireland, the Italians were forced to play an hour of the game with only 13 men when their replacement hooker Hame Faiva was red-carded. This meant the team had to send another player off – resulting in debutant winger Pierre Bruno leaving the pitch – due to the scrums having to be uncontested, with nobody to replace Faiva.

This week Italy face Scotland at home in Rome, doing battle for The Cuttitta Cup. Scotland will be missing their winger Duhan van de Merwe after he picked up a three-week ban in the Worcester-London Irish Premiership game last weekend. Van de Merwe will be out of action for Scotland for both the Italy and Ireland game, which will prove a major blow to the Scots.

This week has seen Glen Young called up by Scotland, with the 27-year-old hoping to win his first senior cap for his country, having previously represented his nation at U20 level.

Head coach Gregor Townsend has expressed disappointed in some of Scotland’s performances this campaign and will hope to get back to winning ways here.

Scotland are, inevitably, huge favourites at 1/14, with Italy 13/2 for a first Six Nations victory since 2015.

Check out all the latest rugby union betting odds at William Hill