It doesn’t get much more meatier than a Scotland vs England Calcutta Cup match at Murrayfield. This Saturday the 13th of March sees these two “Auld Enemies” once again lock horns in the second last weekend of the 6 Nations Championship. This year Scotland are once again playing for pride, while England have an outside chance of winning the competition as long as they prevail against the Scots and then carry that momentum forward to Paris against a very strong and fast French side.

Perhaps, it is a game too far for England, to even conceive that they will win in France but by a handsome scoreline as well, leaves most Six Nations betting punters shaking their heads at the task ahead. Still, England have to overcome the Scots on their own turf, something they haven’t been too good at in recent years.
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It’s Six Nations time again, as the Northern Hemisphere’s most important Rugby Union tournament kicks off this Saturday. Plenty of Six Nation betting questions will soon be answered. Can Ireland repeat their Grand Slam success of last year? Can England mount a serious challenge and start going forward instead of backwards? Can Wales overcome Ireland and England in their own backdoors and become champions once again? Can France play to their strengths and repeat their 2007 Six Nations success? Can Scotland put to bed that ‘potential’ tag and start winning games instead of throwing them away. Can this be Italy’s year where they finally stamp their arrival into the Six Nations?
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This weekend sees the second round of games for Rugby Unions European Cup also widely known as the Heineken Cup. 24 teams from 6 nations will contest for this premier prize. Last years winners, Leinster (Ireland) have already gotten off to a shaky start to the defence of their title. Beaten 9 – 12 at home to London Irish (England), now Leinster must pick themselves up for a tough away match to Brive (France) who also lost their opening game.

Munster (Ireland) and Toulouse (France) are the early Heineken Cup betting favourites. Munster, although, lost their opening away game against a fighting Northampton Saints 31 – 27, but should win, with home backing, against shock troops, Benetton Treviso (Italy), whom they outclassed easily 51 – 0, when the sides last met at Munster’s home ground.
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If your an Irish rugby fan then this weekend can’t come quick enough for you. It has been 61 years since the last time Ireland recorded a Grand Slam and this Saturday (21st March) Ireland can eventually lay that ghost to rest … well, that is if they beat Wales on their own patch, never an easy thing to do. The message coming out of the Welsh camp is plain and simple : “We dislike the Irish more than any other 6 Nations team”, a cloaked compliment indeed. Wales just need to beat the Irish by 13 points to retain the 6 Nations Championship. Come Saturday, one of these two teams shall be master of the northern hemisphere rugby nations, whether its the inspirational Irish or the Welsh wizards, will soon enough be revealed.

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The writing is very much on the wall for Scots Rugby coach, Frank Hadden. If Scotland lose to Italy at Murrayfield this Saturday then Hadden’s days as the Scotland boss will be short. Despite glimpses of promise of what this Scotland team can produce, it’s results that matter. With the 2011 Rugby World Cup creeping ever closer, Scotland need to feel that they have the right man for the job in place. Scottish rugby needs victories, not promises of what-might-be, and Hadden needs to deliver.

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Martin Johnson, now past his honeymoon period as England Rugby Union manager, is struggling to field a team of any great promise for the Six nations tournament which commences this weekend at Twickenham with an opening match against, thankfully, Wooden-Spoon contenders, Italy. Mind you, with the Italians reputedly having the best scrum in Europe and three games in Rome, it could be the Lions who find themselves at the bottom of the heap in three weeks time.

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To the dismay of rugby union betting fans, the Bath and England prop, Matt Stevens, has tested positive for a recreational drug and is likely to be banned from playing for two years. In that time he will miss the Lions tour of South Africa, his native country, and lose the opportunity to gain over twenty Rugby Union England caps. The substance, believed to be cocaine, is deemed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to infringe each of the three criteria used to determine whether or not a drug should be on the banned list. These are that it is shown to be performance enhancing, that it goes against the spirit of sport and that it damages the health of the athlete. If any two of these are met then the substance is banned. On that basis, it is difficult to understand how smoking gets through the net. Perhaps itÂ’s because it is legal.

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Martin Johnson, the England Rugby Union team manager, is said to be denying that our team has been handed a fairly kind draw for the 2011 Rugby Union World Cup in New Zealand. Argentina could be a threat and the encounter with Scotland will be ‘hell of a gameÂ’, he says. Nice to see you expressing such confidence, Martin. Rugby Union betting fans take note – even if England ends up top of their group, they face New Zealand in their quarter-final where they will doubtless be used for floor cleaning purposes.

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ItÂ’s a good job the England football team are back on track and Ricky Hatton retained his world title in Las Vegas because, for rugby fans, the cricket results from India and the rugby results from everywhere are nothing short of terminally embarrassing for English sport. We can mutter about the gruesome tortures we would visit upon Messrs Duckworth and Lewis and grumble about the lack of experienced England rugby caps but, at the end of the day, we might just have to concede that weÂ’ve gone the same way as the Australians and that itÂ’s a struggle for us to be good at sport any more.

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Danny Cipriano has been in a spat with team mate Josh Lewsey and received a few cuts and bruises. ItÂ’s all part of the game, weÂ’re told and not to make too much fuss about it. Now I wasnÂ’t part of that training session and I havenÂ’t interviewed either party but that doesnÂ’t stop me speculating that the ugly culture of celebrity has played a role in this disharmony. In one newspaper report I saw both players described as celebrities and it got me thinking about the true nature of this artificial state of being, so revered in our society yet so reviled by those with intelligence and taste.

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