The first of Saturday's Six Nations matches comes from Murrayfield where Scotland start as firm favourites for their clash with Italy
Scotland v Italy, Saturday 1st February, Edinburgh, KO 16:15 (South African time)
Referee: Karl Dickson (RFU)
Assistant Referees: Luke Pearce (RFU), Damian Schneider (UAR)
TMO: Marius Jonker (SARU)
Weather Forecast - Edinburgh
Scotland
In the Six Nations last year Scotland finished fourth. They started with a win in Wales (27-26) and a home defeat to France (20-16). After that they won at home to England (30-21) but then went down in Italy (31-29) and Ireland (17-13).
Most recently in the November internationals Scotland beat Fiji (57-17) and then lost to the Springboks (32-15). Thereafter they beat Portugal (59-21) and finished up by seeing off the Wallabies (27-13). Their 2024 mid year tour of North and South America delivered wins over Canada (73-12), USA (42-7), Chile (52-11) and Uruguay (31-19).
In the outright betting markets with WSB Scotland are currently 7/1 to win the title and 13/2 for the triple crown
Fixtures & Results: R1 Italy (h), R2 Ireland (h), R3 England (a), R4 Wales (h), R5 France (a)
Italy
In the 2024 Six Nations Italy finished fifth on the log, winning 2, drawing 1 and losing 2 of their matches. They began by running England close in Rome eventually going down 27-24 before losing 36-0 to Ireland in Dublin. In Round 3 they drew 13-13 in France and they finished with back to back wins at home to Scotland (31-29) and then in Wales (24-21).
In the November internationals on home soil Italy were thrashed 50-18 by Argentina, they edged out Georgia (20-17) and then lost to the All Blacks (29-11). On tour in July last year they lost to Samoa (33-25) but then beat Tonga (36-14) and Japan (42-14).
In the outright betting markets with WSB Italy are currently 150/1 rank outsiders to win the title and they are 5/4 to finish bottom of the standings
Fixtures & Results: R1 Scotland (a), R2 Wales (h), R3 France (h), R4 England (a), R5 Ireland (h)
Team News
Scotland:15 Blair Kinghorn, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Stafford McDowall, 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Finn Russell (co-captain), 9 Ben White, 8 Matt Fagerson, 7 Rory Darge (co-captain), 6 Jamie Ritchie, 5 Grant Gilchrist, 4 Jonny Gray, 3 Zander Fagerson, 2 Dave Cherry, 1 Pierre Schoeman.
Replacements: 16 Ewan Ashman, 17 Rory Sutherland, 18 Will Hurd, 19 Gregor Brown, 20 Jack Dempsey, 21 George Horne, 22 Tom Jordan, 23 Kyle Rowe
Italy: 15 Tommaso Allan, 14 Ange Capuozzo, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 12 Tommaso Menoncello, 11 Monty Ioane, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Matin Page-Relo, 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Michele Lamaro (captain), 6 Sebastian Negri, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Dino Lamb, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Giacomo Nicotera, 1 Danilo Fischetti.
Replacements: 16 Gianmarco Lucchesi, 17 Luca Rizzoli, 18 Marco Riccioni, 19 Niccolo Cannone, 20 Manuel Zuliani, 21 Ross Vintcent, 22 Alessandro Garbisi, 23 Simone Gesi
Head to Head (6 Nations Only)
2024 6N Rome Italy 31-29 Scotland
2023 6N Edinburgh Scotland 26–14 Italy
2022 6N Rome Italy 22–33 Scotland
2021 6N Edinburgh Scotland 52-10 Italy
2020 6N Rome Italy 0-17 Scotland
2019 6N Edinburgh Scotland 33-20 Italy
2018 6N Rome Italy 27-29 Scotland
2017 6N Edinburgh Scotland 29-0 Italy
The Betting
Updated Jan 30 20h40
Scotland -17.5 points at 9/10
Italy +18.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
Posted Jan 30 23h36
This handicap was fairly stable all week at Scotland -19.5 but there has been some money for Italy and there is -18.5 and even -17.5 Scotland available at the time of writing.
The points line is 53.5 and I found myself nodding with agreement to The Admiral on THE HANDICAP our rugby betting show. He pointed out that Italy stopped New Zealand from scoring 30 in November and that thi Scottish team are missing a few players.
I like Italy to beat this handicap but the under 36.5 Scotland points appeals more.
BET: 5 units Scotland under 36.5 points at 9/10 at Pokerbet
Note, odds are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
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