Paris is the venue for the opening match of the 2026 Six Nations, the game takes place on Thursday night and defending champions France take on Ireland
France v Ireland, Thursday 5th February, Paris, KO 22:10 (South African time)
Referee: Karl Dickson (RFU)
Assistant Referees: Angus Gardner (RA), Jordan Way (RA)
TMO: Ian Tempest (RFU)
Weather Forecast – Paris
France:
In the Nations Series at the end of 2025 France lost at home to South Africa (32-17) and then beat Fiji (34-21) and Scotland (48-33). France toured New Zealand in July last year. They were not at full strength for that series and after losing the first test narrowly (31-27) they went on to lose the second match 43-17 and the third 29-19.
In the Six Nations earlier last year France were crowned champions. They started with a 43-0 home win over Wales and their only defeat came against England at Twickenham (26-25). They won 74-23 in Italy and 42-27 in Ireland before sealing the title with a 35-16 home win over Scotland, finishing 1 point clear of England and 2 better off than Ireland.
In the Six Nations outright betting Hollywoodbets have France priced up as 13/20 favourites to retain the title
Results and Fixtures: R1 Ireland (h), R2 Wales (a), R3 Italy (h), R4 Scotland (a), R5 England (h)
Ireland:
In the Nations Series at the end of 2025 Ireland lost at home to New Zealand (26-13) before beating Japan (41-10) and Australia (46-19). Their final action of the year so them go down (24-13) to the Springboks in Dublin. Ireland’s mid year program saw them beat Georgia (34-5) and thrash Portugal (106-7).
In last years Six Nations Ireland began with wins at home to England (27-22), in Scotland (32-18) and in Wales (7-18). They lost a crucial game at home to France (42-27) before finishing off with a 22-17 win in Italy. Although they had the same win / loss record as the top 2 sides Ireland finished third in the standings, 1 point behind England and 2 shy of France.
In the Six Nations outright betting Hollywoodbets have Ireland priced at 6/1 to win the title.
Results and Fixtures: R1 France (a), R2 Italy (h), R3 England (a), R4 Wales (h), Scotland (h)
Recent Head to Head
Mar 2025 6N Dublin Ireland 27-42 France
Feb 2024 6N Marseille France 17-38 Ireland
Feb 2023 6N Dublin Ireland 32-19 France
Feb 2022 6N Paris France 30-24 Ireland
Feb 2023 6N Dublin Ireland 13-15 France
Team News
France: 15 Thomas Ramos; 14 Theo Attissogbe, 13 Nicolas Depoortere, 12 Yoram Moefana, 11 Louis Bielle-Biarrey; 10 Matthieu Jalibert, 9 Antoine Dupont (captain); 8 Anthony Jelonch, 7 Oscar Jegou, 6 Francois Cros; 5 Mickael Guillard, 4 Charles Ollivon; 3 Dorian Aldegheri, 2 Julien Marchand, 1 Jean-Baptiste Gros
Replacements: 16 Peato Mauvaka, 17 Rodrigue Neti, 18 Regis Montagne, 19 Hugo Auradou, 20 Emmanuel Meafou, 21 Lenni Nouchi, 22 Baptiste Serin, 23 Kalvin Gourgues
Ireland: 15 Jamie Osborne, 14 Tommy O’Brien, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Stuart McCloskey, 11 Jacob Stockdale, 10 Sam Predergast, 9 Jamison Gibson-Park, 8 Caelan Doris, 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Cian Predergast, 5 Tadgh Beirne, 4 Joe McCarthy, 3 Thomas Clarkson, 2 Dan Sheehan, 1 Jeremy Loughman.
Replacements: 16 Ronan Kelleher, 17 Michael Milne, 18 Finlay Bealham, 19 James Ryan, 20 Jack Conan, 21 Nick Timoney, 22 Craig Casey, 23 Jack Crowley
The Betting
Updated 05 Feb 17h10
France -12.5 points
Ireland +13.5 points
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
This Weeks Bets
Money comes for the Irish
Posted 05 Feb 17h13
Ireland have found some support with the line back to 12.5 in places having touched 14.5. The points down has also edged down slightly to 49.5 or 48.5 depending on where you shop.
I am not going to get further involved other than a nibble on a gut feel that we get a drop goal.
BET 2: 0.5 unit (1-5) any successful drop goal at 5/1 at Sportingbet
France continue to firm, rain expected
Posted 04 Feb 22h57
The -12.5 France is gone and the handicap is as big as 14.5 in places.
Total points is 50.5 and although the last 4 meetings between the sides have had more than 50 points I think this could be an unders night. First up conditions don't look great with rain on and off all day but this is also the 1st game of the tournament and the loser knows it is likely race over for them. I can see this being a good old fashioned test match with some great attacking moments but with defense dominating.
BET 1: 2 units (1-5) under 50.5 points at 9/10 at Hollywoodbets
I will be back tomorrow with some novelty bets (1st try scorer etc) and join us live at 21h00 on THE HANDICAP thursday night for a preview of round 1 and also some Super Rugby chat.
Finally, all this week's rugby tips from members of the Goodforthegame community can be found on the weekly rugby thread on our brand new discussion forum. If you haven't done so already, register a forum account here.