Six Nations Round 3 Betting Tips & Preview

Saturday afternoon's match at Murrayfield promises to be a marvellously intense one and Wales are taken to troop off at the end content in making it ten straight wins over Scotland.

The Red Dragons were a Touch-Finder away from beating England in Cardiff a fortnight ago, which suggests their all-round game is in good shape and just too strong for hosts, who picked up crunch injuries to captain Greig Laidlaw and Backrower Josh Strauss when edged out in a brutal battle in Paris.

Brilliant wing George North's recovery from a dead leg is a big boost and defensive guru Shaun Edwards will have made Wales extremely aware of the threats posed by Scotland, who stunned Ireland in Edinburgh in round one. Ramarkably, the Red Dragons have not conceded more than two tries for 23 Six Nations games.

Wales stand-in Head Coach Rob Howley has kept the same pack that stood firm against England at scrum-time and the lineout. Taulupe Faletau is made wait again for a start at No. 8 because Ross Moriarty was magnificent at the breakdown and in the tackle.

Scotland suffered at the scrum against both Ireland and France and while Gordon Reid coming in at Loosehead offers solidity there, Strauss's sidelining means a different dynamic to their Backrow and more pressure on the Second-Row brothers Gray to keep up their phenomenal tackle rate.

Laidlaw's injury takes away the key weapon in Scotland's armoury of metronomic goalkicking and while Ali Price made a nuisance of himself when taking over at scrum-Half at the Stade de France, Rhys Webb is a much more snappy opponent than Baptiste Serin to deal with on his first start.

Webb looks a nice Anytime Tryscorer pick at 9-2. He has seven tries in 25 Tests including one in Wales' 26-23 success at Murrayfield two years ago when taking a superb support-line to a North burst down the flank.Price will have to contain Webb's regular darts around the fringes too. Scotland Full-Back Stuart Hogg, last year's player of the tournament, will be a marked man but he was against Ireland and France too and he scored in both those games. His bid for a try in five straight Six Nations clashes deserves backing at 10-3 too. Decisive speed, at angles, off near-standing starts were key to those scores and he ran in the opening try after turnover ball two years ago. Defensive structures will always struggle in these circumstances.

Ireland danced around Italy as if the Azzurri weren't on the pitch in Rome two weeks ago but they should know they have been in a battle after France have visited the Aviva Stadium on Saturday evening.

Les Bleus' huge pack harried and hassled England from the first minute to the last of a 19-16 defeat at Twickenham in the opening round and the bruising intensity of their tactics told in their 22-16 home win over Scotland a fortnight ago.

Head coach Guy Noves has moved to nullify the ball-carrying threat of CJ Stander by bringing back Bernard Le Roux at Blindside Flanker and Louis Picamoles is enjoying a barnstorming tournament.

France don't look like they are functioning well enough quite yet though to win in Dublin like in 2011. Ireland have not lost at home in the Six Nations since losing 12-6 to England four years ago. Defeat to Scotland in round one will have focused JOe Schmidt and his men after all the plaudits for beating New Zealand, Australia and South Africa last year and it may also have taken the pressure off to a certain extent with no Grand Slam or Triple Crown to aim for.

Ireland won the teams' 2015 World Cup pool meeting in Cardiff 24-9 but Les Bleus with a start of 8 points is still the bet with dank conditions forecast. Only once in eight visits to Dublin since 2000 have France been been beaten by nine points or more and they scored the sole try in an 18-11 defeat two years ago and drew 13-13 at the Aviva four years ago.

With Paddy Jackson in prime form, Schmidt would not have brought Johnny Sexton back into his team at Fly-Half if he did not think Sexton was fit enough to put his own stamp on proceedings. Sexton's promptings with the boot are always talked about but his try-scoring surges often go unnoticed. Sexton has three tries in eight games against France and there should be plenty of space to exploit in the inside channels with two heavyweight packs concentrating on neutralising eachother.

Wales and Ireland have destroyed Italy in the second half of their round one and two matches and England have to be backed to do the same in Sunday's clash at Twickenham.

The Red Dragons won the second period 30-0 and the Men in Green won 35-0 including scoring 21 points in the last 12 minutes. The Red Rose can give up 23 points after the interval. The hallmark of Eddie Jones and England's amazing run of victories has been there sensational scoring efforts after the break. Only once in 15 in tandem have the Red Rose not won the second half as well as the match and that was against Wales last year when they had put in a tour de force first-half performance to lead 16-0 at the break and 'held-on' for a 25-21 success.

England have put on the afterburners in their last three meetings with Italy to win 40-9 after trailing 11-9, 47-15 after leading 15-5 and 52-11 after leading 24-6.

Forward replacements Jamie George, Mako Vunipola, Kyle Sinckler and Jack Clifford promise power with the ball in the loose and not just at the set-piece. Back-up backs Ben Youngs, Henry Slade and Jack Nowell will love the extra space being a match 'finisher' allows.

James Haskell has come in at Openside Flanker, Danny Care has come in at Scrum-Half and Jonny May has returned to the Right Wing but Jones has resisted the temptation to break up his axis of George Ford and Owen Farrell at Fly-Half and Inside Centre and done a striaght swap of Ben Te'o for Jonathan Joseph at Outside Centre.

Te'o is sure to be a popular Anytime Tryscorer pick after his match-winner against France and he has been in superb form for club Worcester but Farrell could be the best value. Farrell scored a try against the Azzurri in Rome last year and in 2014.