England are firm favourites to make it two wins from two when they host Wales at Twickenham in the Six Nations on Saturday
England v Wales, Saturday 10th February, Twickenham, KO 18:45 (South African time)
Referee: James Doleman (NZR)
Assistant Referees: Ben O'Keeffe (NZR), Hollie Davidson (SRU)
TMO: Brendon Pickerill (NZR)
Weather Forecast – Twickenham
England
England opened up their tournament against Italy in Rome, they were around 14.5 point favourites on the handicap but trailed 17-14 at half time before second half improvement saw them edge the contest 27-24. Elliot Daly in the first half and Alex Mitchell in the second scored tries for England but it was George Ford's kicking, 1 conversion and 5 penalties, that saw England home.
In 6 Nations 2023 England trailed in a distant fourth with 2 wins and 3 defeats. They did beat Wales 20-10 in Cardiff but they lost to both Scotland and France at Twickenham
In the outright betting markets with BoyleSports England are currently 68/10 second favourites to win the title, 5/1 for the Triple Crown and 12/1 to land a Grand Slam. They can also be backed at around 18/10 for a top 2 finish.
Fixtures & Results: R1 Italy (a) won 27-24, R2 Wales (h), R3 Scotland (a), R4 Ireland (h), R5 France (a)
Wales
Wales were 3.5 point underdogs for their opening round clash at home to Scotland. The first half was a disaster and they trailed 20-0 at half time. That deficit became 27-0 and then Wales conjured up an amazing fightback which came up agonizingly short. Wales lost the game 27-26 but earned 2 bonus points. Botham, Dyer, Wainwright and Mann all scored tries, 3 of which were converted by Lloyd.
In the 6 Nations last year Wales won just 1 and lost 4 of their matches to finish with only Italy below them on the log. That sole win came in Italy 29-17 whilst other results comprised of defeats at home to Ireland (34-10), in Scotland (35-7), at home to England (20-10) and in France (41-28).
In the outright betting markets with BoyleSports Wales are currently 15/1 to finish in the top 2 and and they can also be backed at around 9/2 to finish bottom.
Fixtures & Results: R1 Scotland (h) lost 27-26, R2 England (a), R3 Ireland (a), R4 France (h), R5 Italy (h)
Team News
England: 15 Freddie Steward, 14 Tommy Freeman, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Fraser Dingwall, 11 Elliot Daly, 10 George Ford, 9 Alex Mitchell, 8 Ben Earl, 7 Sam Underhill, 6 Ethan Roots, 5 Ollie Chessum, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Will Stuart, 2 Jamie George (c), 1 Joe Marler
Replacements: 16 Theo Dan, 17 Ellis Genge, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Alex Coles, 20 Chandler Cunningham-South, 21 Danny Care, 22 Fin Smith, 23 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso
Wales: 15 Cameron Winnett, 14 Josh Adams, 13 George North, 12 Nick Tompkins, 11 Rio Dyer, 10 Ioan Lloyd, 9 Tomos Williams, 8 Aaron Wainwright, 7 Tommy Reffell, 6 Alex Mann, 5 Adam Beard, 4 Dafydd Jenkins (captain), 3 Keiron Assiratti, 2 Elliot Dee, 1 Gareth Thomas.
Replacements: 16 Ryan Elias, 17 Corey Domachowski, 18 Archie Griffin, 19 Will Rowlands, 20 Taine Basham, 21 Kieran Hardy, 22 Cai Evans, 23 Mason Grady
Head to Head (6 Nations Only)
2023 6N Cardiff Wales 10-20 England (Tries 1-3 )
2022 6N Twickenham England 23-19 Wales (Tries 1-3)
2021 6N Cardiff Wales 40–24 England (Tries 4-2 )
2020 6N Twickenham England 33-30 Wales (Tries 3-3)
2019 6N Cardiff Wales 13-6 England (Tries 1-0)
2018 6N Twickenham England 12-6 Wales (Tries 2-0)
2017 6N Cardiff Wales 16-21 England (Tries 1-2)
2016 6N Twickenham England 25-21 Wales (Tries 1-3)
The Betting
England -11.5 points at 9/10 widely available
Wales +12.5 points at 9/10 widely available
Note, odds quoted are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
I handicapped this game England -10.5 in my Sunday night handicapping exercise and the bookies opened -12.5.
I don’t think England played that badly against an Italy team that will be no pushovers this season. They tried some new combinations and aside from some early defensive lapses looked pretty good.
Wales were blown away by Scotland in the 1st half but showed plenty of character to claw back 26 points unanswered for a 1 point loss.
Nothing jumps out at me early in the week and I will be back Thursday or Friday with a bet after seeing the points lines.
In the interim keep an eye on our forum thread to see what others think and if you enjoy your rugby betting sign up for our free newsletter here
Update: 9 Feb 07h40
I am reluctantly going against the panel on last nights The Handicap show on this one.
Chris and Hanrick were both on Wales plus but and recent history between these sides at Twickenham certainly backs them up.
I am leaning England though as I am expecting them to train on after last weeks game against Italy.
BET: 4 units England -11 at 10/11 at Sportingbet*
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Note, odds are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
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