It’s Grand Slam showdown time in the 2022 Guinness Six Nations Rugby Championship this Saturday, with all roads leading to the last fixture of this season’s competition in Paris.
France meet England at the national stadium with a clean sweep in sight, with sole challengers Ireland attempting to put as much pressure as possible on Les Bleus when they host Scotland earlier in the day.
Bottom two Wales and Italy meet in Cardiff in the first game of the day, albeit with the wooden spoon already safely housed in Rome for another year.
The predictions for each match follow below the short preview and team news for each individual Six Nations match this coming weekend.
Wales vs Italy
Wales are eyeing a late surge away from the bottom of the Six Nations Rugby Championship table when they host Italy at the Principality Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The home side have one last shot at securing a second win of a nearly-but-not-quite campaign that has seen them edged out at home by France and away to England in the last two rounds.
Such contests exist only in an alternative reality for their visitors.
The Azzurri are dead last once again and haven’t collected so much as a bonus point with one game to go, not to mention their points difference of minus 122.
Dan Biggar captains the Welsh from fly-half, with whiz kids Josh Adams and Louis Rees-Zammit forming the wing pairing.
Ange Capuozzo earns a start at full-back for the visitors following last weekend’s brace of tries, while Marco Fuser is in at lock.
Wales Starting XV: 15 Johnny McNicholl, 14 Louis Rees-Zammit, 13 Owen Watkin, 12 Uilisi Halaholo, 11 Josh Adams, 10 Dan Biggar (captain), 9 Gareth Davies, 8 Taulupe Faletau, 7 Josh Navidi, 6 Seb Davies, 5 Alun Wyn Jones, 4 Adam Beard, 3 Dillon Lewis, 2 Dewi Lake, 1 Gareth Thomas.
Replacements: 16 Bradley Roberts, 17 Wyn Jones, 18 Leon Brown, 19 Will Rowlands, 20 Ross Moriarty, 21 Kieran Hardy, 22 Callum Sheedy, 23 Nick Tompkins.
Italy Starting XV: 15 Ange Capuozzo, 14 Edoardo Padovani, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 12 Leonardo Marin, 11 Montanna Ioane, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Callum Braley, 8 Toa Halafihi, 7 Michele Lamaro (captain), 6 Giovanni Pettinelli, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Marco Fuser, 3 Pietro Ceccarelli, 2 Giacomo Nicotera, 1 Danilo Fischetti.
Replacements: 16 Luca Bigi, 17 Ivan Nemer, 18 Giosu? Zilocchi, 19 David Sisi, 20 Niccol? Cannone, 21 Braam Steyn, 22 Alessandro Fusco, 23 Marco Zanon.
Ireland vs Scotland
Ireland set out to push France all the way for the Six Nations Rugby Championship title as they welcome Scotland to Dublin in the fifth and final round of action on Saturday.
Last weekend’s ‘semi-final’ victory at Twickenham against England left the Irish as the last men standing with a shot at denying France the crown.
Coach Andy Farrell knows he needs help from his motherland with the English needing to deny Les Bleus for Irish dreams to come true, but any sort of win over the Scots at the Aviva Stadium will give them a chance.
Their visitors would have been dreaming of being in that exact position following their famous opening round victory over Eddie Jones’ Red Rose in Edinburgh.
But successive losses to Wales and France put paid to all that, even with last weekend’s expected success over Italy repairing some of the damage.
Veteran Johnny Sexton is inked in to join John Hayes on 105 international caps, with Connacht wing Mack Hansen also finding a berth.
Jonny Gray returns from injury for the away side, who can only find a place on the bench for the mercurial Finn Russell.
Ireland Starting XV: 15 Hugo Keenan, 14 Mack Hansen, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Bundee Aki, 11 James Lowe, 10 Johnny Sexton (captain), 9 Jamison Gibson Park, 8 Jack Conan, 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Caelan Doris, 5 Iain Henderson, 4 Tadhg Beirne, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 2 Dan Sheehan, 1 Cian Healy.
Replacements: 16 Rob Herring, 17 Dave Kilcoyne, 18 Finlay Bealham, 19 Kieran Treadwell, 20 Peter O?Mahony, 21 Conor Murray, 22 Joey Carbery, 23 Robbie Henshaw.
Scotland Starting XV: 15 Stuart Hogg (captain), 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Chris Harris, 12 Sam Johnson, 11 Kyle Steyn, 10 Blair Kinghorn, 9 Ali Price, 8 Matt Fagerson, 7 Hamish Watson, 6 Rory Darge, 5 Grant Gilchrist, 4 Jonny Gray, 3 Zander Fagerson, 2 George Turner, 1 Pierre Schoeman.
Replacements: 16 Fraser Brown, 17 Allan Dell, 18 WP Nel, 19 Sam Skinner, 20 Josh Bayliss, 21 Ben White, 22 Finn Russell, 23 Mark Bennett.
France vs England
Paris is the place to be on Saturday night, as France have only England left standing between themselves and a Six Nations Rugby Championship Grand Slam.
It’s been a sparkling campaign so far for Les Bleus, who have seen off Italy, Scotland, Ireland and Wales to sit top of the standings coming into the final weekend, with only the Irish within striking distance.
No such luck for Eddie Jones’ rebuilt side, who lost to Auld Enemy Scotland on the opening weekend at Murrayfield, before going down to 14 men early on in their dogged Twickenham loss to the Irish a week ago.
An unconvincing win over the Welsh in London and a regulation beating of the Italians are slim pickings for the richest nation in the game.
And now they must content themselves with spoiling the party for Fabien Galthie and Co.
George Furbank is the surprise call up at full-back, meaning a shift to the wing for fellow rookie Freddie Steward.
The home side are boosted by the return of Damian Penaud following a bout of Covid-19, with the wing the only change ahead of their final showdown.
France Starting XV: 15 Melvyn Jaminet, 14 Damian Penaud, 13 Ga?l Fickou, 12 Jonathan Danty, 11 Gabin Villi?re, 10 Romain Ntamack, 9 Antoine Dupont (captain), 8 Gr?gory Alldritt, 7 Anthony Jelonch, 6 Fran?ois Cros, 5 Paul Willemse, 4 Cameron Woki, 3 Uini Atonio, 2 Julien Marchand, 1 Cyril Baille.
Replacements: 16 Peato Mauvaka, 17 Jean-Baptiste Gros, 18 Mohamed Haouas, 19 Romain Taofifenua, 20 Thibaud Flament, 21 Dylan Cretin, 22 Maxime Lucu, 23 Thomas Ramos.
England Starting XV: 15 George Furbank, 14 Freddie Steward, 13 Joe Marchant, 12 Henry Slade, 11 Jack Nowell, 10 Marcus Smith, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Sam Simmonds, 7 Sam Underhill, 6 Courtney Lawes (captain), 5 Nick Isiekwe, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Will Stuart, 2 Jamie George, 1 Ellis Genge.
Replacements: 16 Nic Dolly, 17 Joe Marler, 18 Kyle Sinckler, 19 Ollie Chessum, 20 Alex Dombrandt, 21 Harry Randall, 22 George Ford, 23 Elliot Daly.
Six Nations 2021: Predictions for 19 March
Prediction methodology explained: The expected win percentage is based off publicly available odds. For example, if a team?s odds are 2.30, the expected chance of winning is 43%. If the odds are 1.62 the expected chance of winning is 62% and so on. These are accurate at the time of writing but are subject to change. Where there is no value listed, the odds were not available at the time of writing. Score margins use the methodology developed by Rugby Vision.
| Chance of winning (%) | Points margin | |
| Wales | 91 | 30 |
| Italy | 8 | |
| Chance of winning (%) | Points margin | |
| Ireland | 69 | 17 |
| Scotland | 27 | |
| Chance of winning (%) | Points margin | |
| France | 57 | 7 |
| England | 38 |
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Antoinette is a recovering journalist. She has won multiple Sports Journalist of the Year awards and with bylines in The Guardian, Sports Illustrated, Daily Maverick and the New Statesman – among others. She thinks it is a bit odd writing about herself in the third person, unless she is playing as herself in The Sims. She hopes one day Ian Google will love her again.
