Six Nations Betting: What Are The Odds Of A 2022 Triple Crown Winner?
It may be several weeks since they faced another one of the other four nations in contention, but Ireland can finally start putting their plans together for a major bid at securing a Triple Crown in this year’s Six Nations.
The best betting sites are offering their takes on the possibility of this happening while also examining the prospect of them falling short in this quest.
Following an opening day success over Wales at the Aviva Stadium on February 5, Andy Farrell’s men faced France and Italy in rounds two and three respectively.
While these games will have great significance when it comes to the final table at the end of the Championship, the forthcoming encounters with England and Scotland are the ones to watch out for in terms of Ireland’s hunt for a 12th Triple Crown triumph.
No Triple Crown Winner Still Viewed As The Most Likely Outcome
Both England and Scotland can be a tough nut to crack when on top form and this is possibly why best betting sites for rugby union are slightly in favour on there being no Crown winner in 2022.
Some UK bookmakers are offering odds of 8/11 on Ireland falling short in this pursuit with Unibet even more convinced Ireland won’t defeat all three of their UK-based rivals in the same season at a value of 8/13.
Chaotic Italian Game Unusual Experience For Ireland
It was difficult to gauge how much England took from their 33-0 bonus point win over Italy in round two of the competition.
However, it was probably more than Ireland were able to garner at the Aviva last Sunday as their showdown with the Azzurri was thrown into chaos before the action had even reached the 20-minute mark.
On his second consecutive Six Nations start, Joey Carbery got the ball rolling for Ireland with a converted try. Yet this almost felt like an afterthought by comparison with what was about to unfold.
Hame Faiva was pressed into the action after Italy’s starting hooker Gianmarco Lucchesi had been withdrawn through injury, but he then received his marching orders for a high tackle on Ireland’s Dan Sheehan.
With referee Nika Amashukeli correctly applying World Rugby Law 3.20 – which focuses on the area of uncontested scrums – the visitors were reduced to 13 players with No 8 Toa Halafihi also forced to sit out the rest of the game.
This essentially meant that the rest of the tie was a training exercise and even though they triumphed on a score of 57-6 in the end, there was some frustration within the Irish camp about their performance.
There are likely to be changes to their starting line-up for the next day – team captain Jonathan Sexton is expected to resume his spot at fly-half – though some fringe or novice players didn’t harm their chances of being selected.
Ireland also remain second favourites in the 2022 Six Nations betting odds.
England The Big Litmus Test For The Irish
Traditionally meetings with England have offered a good indication of where Irish teams are at in a given year and the Green Army’s latest voyage to Twickenham Stadium on March 12 will present a major test of their resolve.
Having suffered four successive losses at their hand over the course of 2019 and 2020, Ireland produced a stellar display to emphatically defeat England 32-18 in the closing round of last year’s Six Nations.
They were significantly motivated by the fact that CJ Stander was lining out in the green jersey for the 51st and final time, but they continued to build on this showing and remained unbeaten until France narrowly got the better of them in Saint-Denis on February 12 of this year.
The squad maintained an upbeat mood in spite of losing out 30-24 to Les Bleus on that day and will fancy their chances of overcoming their cross-channel rivals on Saturday week.
Twickenham has proven to be a fortress in the past, but it hasn’t stopped Ireland enjoying some memorable outings there – the Grand Slam clincher of 2018 being the most notable amongst them.
England Growing In Stature
Nevertheless, England have shown some signs of improvement since a disappointing defeat to Scotland in the opening round with Harlequins out-half Marcus Smith providing considerable X-factor to their attack.
The 23-year-old is currently the competition’s top-scorer with 48 points, a haul that includes tries against Scotland and Italy. That gives him a shot at the competition’s top try scorer award.
Of course, a showdown with the Scots also awaits Ireland – the only team left who can claim a Triple Crown – on their home soil of the Aviva Stadium on March 19, but that game will be of much less importance if they don’t claim a second win on the bounce against England.
It’s still a surprise to see Farrell’s men 5/6 favourites for the game on bet365, while the Eddie Jones-led home side can be back at 6/5 with Ladbrokes.
Ireland Have Triple Crown History
Still, given Ireland have only won the Triple Crown five times during the Six Nations era – they only managed it four times in the 73 years of the Five Nations and twice in the Home Nations Championship – it isn’t exactly far-fetched to suggest Ireland will ensure there is a Crown winner for the fifth year in-a-row.
BetVictor are rating Ireland’s chances in this particular race at odds of 5/4.
Instead of simply being content with a Triple Crown though, Ireland will also be hoping that France will slip-up in the remaining two rounds and thus afford the Green Army an opportunity to potentially snatch the Six Nations Championship.
However, winning the Crown would potentially keep them in the hunt for such an honour – their clash with Scotland precedes France welcoming England to Paris on the last day of the competition – and it is for this reason that Ireland will be going full out to secure this accolade in the coming weeks.