Six Nations Betting: France Now Red Hot Favourites To Secure Title
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Following another weekend of explosive action in the tournament, betting sites for rugby union have significantly re-examined who they believe to be the favourites to win this year’s Six Nations Championship.
Coming into round four as the only side who were still capable of claiming a Six Nations Grand Slam in 2025, Ireland were full of spirit for the visit of France to the Aviva Stadium.
Earlier victories against England, Scotland and Wales had helped them to get their hands on a Triple Crown for the third time in four seasons, and the Green Army were also very much in the reckoning for a clean sweep of championship honours.
France Pull Off Massive Win Over Ireland
It was looking good for Ireland when a converted Dan Sheehan try edged them into a 13-8 lead in the early stages of the second half, but even though France lost their talisman Antoine Dupont to injury before the interval, they proceeded to run riot with 34 unanswered points.
24 of this tally was accumulated in the space of just 12 minutes, meaning that late scores from Cian Healy and Jack Conan only served as mere consolations in the end for Ireland – who fell to a 42-27 loss.
At Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh later in the same day, Wales finished the contest with their own haul of 21 points.
Yet this wasn’t enough to earn them a first win in this tournament since March 2023 as a brace of tries from both Blair Kinghorn and Will Jordan proved pivotal in earning their opponents Scotland a 35-29 triumph.
At Twickenham Stadium in London on Sunday, Italy caused England a number of headaches in attack before eventually being overpowered by Steve Borthwick’s side.
An Ollie Sleightholme double was surrounded by tries for five different players to leave the English with 23 points to spare (47-24) over the Azzurri.
All of the above means that, moving into the Championship’s final round this weekend, France are currently leading the way with 16 points.
Having recovered from an opening round defeat to Ireland with three straight wins, England are now just a single point behind Les Bleus on 15.
Remarkably, Ireland have now dropped to third place on 14 points, one position and three points better off than Celtic rivals Scotland.
Towards the foot of the table, Italy are one point ahead of Wales in fifth – albeit both teams’ title ambitions evaporated quite some time ago.
France The New Favourites For Six Nations Glory
Before last weekend’s fare, France were second favourites to win the current edition of the Six Nations with the odds available on Fabien Galthie’s charges being somewhere in the region of 7/4.
Following their devastating performance in Dublin on Saturday, this has now completely changed.
At the time of writing, the French have been installed as virtually unbackable favourites for Six Nations glory at 1/12.
Considering all they need to do is beat Scotland in Stade de France this Saturday night to earn their first Championship crown since 2022 – a bonus point isn’t a necessity for Les Bleus – it is easy to see why betting apps are now so convinced that France have what it takes to climb the podium once again.
England Keep Themselves In The Mix
However, they will still need to get the job done on the field of play, particularly as a couple of other teams are hoping to put as much pressure on the French as possible.
Although their style of play has come under intense scrutiny for quite some time, England did overcome France in the second round of the tournament and have kept their hopes of bridging a five-year gap to their last Six Nations success alive heading into the final round.
Ahead of their early Saturday evening trip to the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff for a showdown with Wales, the odds on England usurping France to the Championship are rated somewhere between 7/1 and 10/1 by most bookmakers.
Yet Ladbrokes are offering 6/1 on Borthwick securing his first Six Nations as England head coach and you can be sure his troops will fight tooth and nail for every point in Saturday’s game.
A Third Successive Championship Now Looks Less Likely For Ireland
At odds of 4/6, Ireland were very much the front runners to win a third consecutive Six Nations title this time last week.
Their 15-point defeat to France has come as a massive set-back, however, and the defending champions are now just third favourites for the Championship – stretching out as far as 25/1 with some rugby betting sites.
Some bookmakers have them at the shorter odds of 16/1, but due to their failure to gain a bonus point against France (and to allow England to come away with a losing bonus from their meeting in the Aviva at the beginning on February), Simon Easterby’s outfit might be forced to settle for third spot in the final standings.
Even if they did manage to claim a bonus point win against Italy at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome on Saturday, it would pretty much be in vain if France had a victory of any description over Scotland.
The confidence of the Irish players will have been dented in the wake of the French game and while a Championship crown might be out of reach at this stage, it will be interesting to see what the response is from the Caelan Doris-led Irish in the Italian capital.
Scotland Technically Still In Contention, But Are Rank Outsiders
Because there are only five points separating them from table-toppers France, there is still an outside chance that Scotland could win the Six Nations Championship for the first time – they previously won the final edition of the Five Nations in 1999.
Yet this would require them to earn a bonus point victory of more than 53 points against France, as well as restricting Les Bleus to less than four tries, while also getting favours from Wales and Italy in their games on Saturday.
This all seems unlikely and this is reflected in the fact that odds of 375/1 on a Six Nations triumph are one of the more favourable options on Scotland within the betting world.