Scotland v Ireland Betting Offers and Tips, 4 February 2017

Scotland v Ireland Tips and Betting Offers, Saturday 4th February 2017, Murrayfield, 14:25

The Six Nations gets underway this weekend and the curtain raiser sees Scotland host Ireland in Edinburgh and it should be an entertaining match to watch with Ireland one of the favourites to win the tournament.

Preview

Ireland will be looking to pick up their third Six Nations trophy in four years and after beating the Southern Hemisphere ‘Big 3’ for the first time in a calendar year in 2016, they have a solid foundation on which to build upon. They have plenty of quality running throughout the side and it is little surprise to see Joe Schmidt’s side made second favourites to win the Six Nations. The Irish have impressive strength in depth and in the centres, the partnership of Gary Ringrose and Robbie Henshaw, which has been developed at Leinster, could prove key to Ireland’s chances.

Scotland meanwhile will certainly be hopeful ahead of this clash as they put in a few decent performances in the Autumn Internationals, but every year we find ourselves saying this and Scotland rarely seem to trouble the top spots. They do have a number of good players with the likes of Stuart Hogg a shoe-in for a British and Irish Lions spot and they will need their big players to step up on Saturday if they are to upset the odds and get a win.

Betting Verdict

Ireland are a highly effective team around the breakdown and they do the basics very well. However, that is not to say that this Irish side are without flaws as they can often concede plenty of tries and if Scotland get at them they will score a few. We think that this one will be quite an open affair, but ultimately Ireland’s quality should shine through. They have no doubt been improved by the impressive showing of Irish sides in the European Champions Cup and we think that they will head back into the dressing room at half time in the lead.

That said, whilst Ireland are favourites for this clash, Scotland will be well up for this contest and they have a tradition of starting Six Nations tournaments fairly well (even if they haven’t necessarily turned good performances into wins). They ran the Aussies close again in an international last year and we think that this will be a close one with an Ireland win by fewer than 13 points looking a decent bet and it certainly offers better value than the handicap which has been set at around +/-6.