Ireland v Scotland Preview - Six Nations Round Five

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Ireland are the only team that can contest France to pick up the Six Nation’s trophy, the Shamrocks will be heavily reliant on England beating France as that is the only way that they can win and they would also have to win this game in order to lift the trophy. 

Scotland have struggled to take the next step in the world of rugby for many years now, they have stagnated at the position they are currently in and haven’t really shown much desire to reach the upper echelons in the world of Rugby. 

The Centenary Quaich is the annual award that goes to the winner of this match-up, if the years prior are anything to go by it doesn’t look good for the Scots. Scotland have only won this matchup four times out of the last 22 attempts despite winning ten out of the first 11 (the other was a 6-6 draw) matches leading up to this poor run over the last 22 years. 

Scotland have been slow out the gates in all the matches they’ve played so far, they have conceded the first points of the match in all four games so far whilst Ireland are the polar opposite. The Shamrocks have scored first in three of four games with the only exception being against France when Dupont scored a try in the 1st minute of the match.

France v England Preview - Six Nations Round Five

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Ireland To Score First

The evens handicap line is floating around -14 Ireland and +12.5 Scotland, if we look at the margins of victory in the previous games between the two sides we can see that Ireland have only managed to win with -14 handicap in four out of the last 12 matches but Scotland have won with +12.5 handicap in eight out of the 12. 

Both teams would have covered this handicap in three out of the four games they have played so far, France being the only team to get the better of Ireland and Scotland fell some way short of Les Bleus losing the game by 19 points.

James Ryan will be replaced by Iain Henderson whilst Jack Conan and Mack Hansen have returned to the team as Ireland will try to claim the Triple Crown on home soil. 

Gregor Townsend has made two changes to the Scotland team that beat Italy last weekend, Blair Kinghorn will make his Six Nations debut and will replace Finn Russell whilst Jonny Gray comes in to replace his Exeter team mate Josh Skinner.

PREDICTION:

IRELAND TO SCORE FIRST