Why Ireland should lose the Welsh battle but win the war

IG Sport expect Ireland to lose tomorrow but win the Six Nations

Our friends at spread betting firm IG Sport are here to tell us all about the markets on offer for the final weekend of the 2009 Six Nations:

“Saturday’s rugby union encounter between Ireland and Wales in Cardiff will not only decide the winner of the 2009 Six Nations but could also determine the destination of the ultimate Wooden Spoon. Between 1910 and 1953 France went 24 Championships without winning the competition. That’s the longest period a team has gone without success in the competition.  Ireland’s current run is 23 - even Scotland have won since them!

Posted: March 20th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Wales look for first successive wins over England since 1989

Previews of all three of this weekend’s Six Nations matches

Wales coach Warren Gatland has raised the stakes ahead of his team’s home clash with England by accusing them of being negative. The New Zealander says his opponents have gone “backwards in term of positivity” under Martin Johnson and claims they are “clearly trying to get a win no matter how”. Will he be proved right? Here are the key stats for this weekend’s action:

France v Scotland (3pm, Saturday, BBC1)
Les Bleus have beaten the Scots in nine of their last ten encounters and a decade has passed since the visitors last triumphed in France. It’s very unlikely that an upset will take place. Besides one victory against regular wooden spoon winners Italy in 2006, you have to go back to 2002 (Wales) to find Scotland’s last away win in the Six Nations. France haven’t lost successive Six Nations games in the same year since 2001.

Wales v England (5.30pm, Saturday, BBC1)

Posted: February 13th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

England need to slay the Dragons again in the rugby

Spread betting firm IG Sport preview the big Six Nations clash

England travel to the Millennium Stadium this weekend for a Valentine’s Day encounter with last year’s Grand Slam winners Wales. Here’s what our friends at IG Sport had to say about proceedings:

“Dragon slaying used to be easy for the English.  Back in the day all you needed was a lance, a stead and to have been canonized.  Things have got tougher since then!  Even the most diehard England rugby union fan could take little out of the Bergamasco fiasco last Saturday which produced a victory scoreline for England more flattering than a hippo, entering a ‘cutest smile’ competition for which the late replacement judge is a walrus and the work experience journalist covering the story just happens to be a mole!  A truer gauge of how far England have come (or indeed regressed) under Martin Johnson will come against Wales in Cardiff this weekend.  The Welsh are 9-12 point favourites on IG Sport’s supremacy line, a quote justified by their performance (for 60 minutes at least) against Scotland at the weekend.  The legend lives on, but in the real life, sometimes the dragon wins.”

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Posted: February 12th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment