Betting.Betfair

[i]After success last week backing the New York Giants in the Super Bowl, the Betfair Contrarian is confident of following it up with a rugby triumph. He's spotted Ireland at a massive 4.6 to win away to France in the Six Nations on Saturday, and thinks that there's a formidable case for backing them despite their poor record in Paris...[/i] [u]France are without their kicking king[/u] Ireland couldn't have asked for a bigger boost in the build-up to Saturday's encounter than the news that France's chief kicker Dimitri Yachvili will sit it out with a back injury. The experienced scrum-half was their top points scorer at last year's World Cup, racking up an impressive tally of 39, and carried that form into their Six Nations opener against Italy, in which his ten-point haul accounted...

Stuart Lancaster has been taking advice and soundings from all sorts of people - including Gary Neville - as he prepares to take charge of England in the Six Nations. But the one person who might have assisted him most has instead given "help" of a very different kind. It was an open secret that Sir Clive Woodward quite fancied going back to the RFU in the fall-out from a disastrous World Cup campaign. He didn't get the gig, and so he's chosen to have a sly dig at Lancaster instead. Sir Clive has suggested that former PE teacher Lancaster is "lucky" to have been put in charge, and that he "has a lot to prove" about his ability to do the job. It all smacks of sour grapes. The truth is that nobody gets put in charge of a national team without a bit of luck on the way. There would be...

[b]Utterly rudderless without a coach and with the governing body in turmoil, few are rushing to back England to win the 2012 Six Nations but there are compelling reasons to get behind the Twickenham boys, says the Betfair Contrarian[/b] After a World Cup more memorable for the players' off-the-field antics than their performances on it, English rugby last week achieved a level of turmoil that the Football Association could only dream of when the media got hold of the "confidential" report into their World Cup misery. Yet though currently coachless and void of direction, the Contrarian anticipates a bright future for the England team, beginning with victory at next year's Six Nations at 4.1... [i]World Cup heroes often flop at the Six Nations... [/i]Understandably given their success...

When it comes to talking a good game, Warren Gatland is right up there with the best of them. A few weeks ago he was rubbishing England's scrum before watching them take his own Welsh forwards to pieces. And now he's at it again. Hot on the heels of less than convincing wins over Scotland and Italy he's sent Martin Johnson a warning. "I don't think England will win all their games and if they slip up we are waiting to pounce. We can still win the title," is his Six Nations verdict. When I read it first I laughed. And Betfair's punters aren't taking the idea too seriously either. Despite them occupying second place in the table you can currently get 55.0 to back the Welsh as outright winners with Ireland 50.0 and France 9.4 ahead of them in the betting. (Grand Slam chasing England,...

[b]England players have been undergoing a series of Jungian psychological tests to boost team bonding. Ralph Ellis wonders if the Red Rose can put a feather in their caps by beating the French or whether this will go down as a bird brained experiment.[/b] So now we know why Chris Ashton loves that flying try celebration. He's actually a bird. And not just any bird, but a yellow peacock. That's how English rugby's emerging superstar has been categorised in a series of psychological tests carried out under the instruction of Martin Johnson. England's manager seems to be copying the "no stone unturned" approach of his World Cup winning mentor Clive Woodward ahead of this year's competition. All the elite stars in the Six Nations squad spent a day doing detailed quizzes under the guidance...

[b]Italy are improving with each Six Nations campaign and, following last year's close contest in Rome, Ralph Ellis wonders why the markets are offering such long odds on an Azzurri triumph at Twickenham.[/b] When it comes to the Six Nations, we all expect Italy to be collecting the wooden spoon. Just to prove my point they are already installed as 1.47 favourites for the dubious honour. It's hardly surprising. It's where they have finished in all but three of the 12 seasons they've been in the competition. And in our minds they're still the new boys in a tournament that goes back, in one way shape or form, through 128 years of sporting history. But there's a point when any set of boys start to become men. For instance it doesn't seem so long ago that the big cricketing nations were...