When considering your Six Nations Free Bet, it should be pointed out England go into the match as narrow favourites over Ireland. Despite winning impressively against Wales and less impressively against Italy in their opening two games, Martin Johnson’s team have come under intense criticism from all directions for their performances. Jonny Wilkinson has been the focal point of debate after his poor display in Rome, but has been backed by his manager and retains his place in the unchanged England team.

Ireland will be desperate to prove they are still challengers for the title after being outplayed against the French, and will be hoping three cap Sexton will handle the inevitable pressure he will face at Twickenham. Dropping the proven and reliable Ronan O’Gara is a gamble but coach Kidney has stated he sees 24yr old Sexton as the future Ireland fly-half and is confident in his choice.

With home advantage and the unexpected sniff of a Grand Slam, Six Nations Betting odds suggest that England will need to improve on their uninspiring display against Italy in which they struggled to a 17-12 victory if they are to upset the critics and prove winning ugly is better than losing pretty.

The main talking point is the decision to hand Matthew Tait his second start since the 2007 World Cup.

It is another significant moment in what has been a fascinating career for the 24-year-old. He made his England debut as a teenager back in 2005, played in a variety of roles in the build-up to the 2007 tournament and during the World Cup itself before disappearing off the international radar.

However, he is now in the starting line-up and he will be determined to hold on to a position in the England team. Johnson has admitted that Tait has been misused in the past and that now he has his chance to cement a place.

Talking about the Sale player, the England coach said he has a “good all-round game” with a defence that is “under-rated”. Overall, there is bound to be a lot of focus on the performance of Tait as he has hogged the attention in the build-up so far.

Other significant team news is that Jonny Wilkinson continues at fly-half with Ugo Monye and Mark Cueto looking to make an impact on the wings. Then there is the return of Delon Armitage, Riki Flutey and Nick Easter who all missed England’s autumn fixtures.

Speaking about these players, Johnson said that it is “good to get them back”. They all have something to add to the side and every England fan will be hoping that they show this against Wales.

It is important that England start their Six Nations campaign with a victory, after all. There have been some difficult times under Johnson in the last couple of years and it would be good for everyone concerned if this next set of fixtures started with a positive performance and maximum points.

The Six Nations betting odds make France favourites to win the tournament.

However, this will not stop England fans placing a Six Nations free bet on their team to win the competition should they be lucky enough to have one.

The full England team is:

D Armitage (London Irish); M Cueto (Sale Sharks), M Tait (Sale Sharks), R Flutey (Brive), U Monye (Harlequins); J Wilkinson (Toulon), D Care (Harlequins); T Payne (Wasps), D Hartley (Northampton), D Wilson (Bath), S Shaw (Wasps), S Borthwick (Saracens, capt), J Haskell (Stade Francais), L Moody (Leicester), N Easter (Harlequins).

O’Gara said that for Earls to ‘achieve what he has’ during his first season of senior rugby is a sign of remarkably quick progress. The Irishman went on to say that nobody has had this type of impact on international rugby ‘since Jonny Wilkinson’.

Much like Earls, Wilkinson played for his country during his first season as a professional. The 21-year-old Irishman has taken the next step though by representing the Lions in his first year.

This doesn’t mean it has been all plain sailing for Earls though. During the Lions tour so far, his performances have been rather up and down. On a positive note, he has scored two tries – one against the
Free State Cheetahs and one against the Emerging Springboks last night – but he had a nightmare start against a Royal XV at the beginning of the tour.

Earls knocked the ball on several times in this match and played his part in conceding a try when he spilled a high ball early in the game. The youngster has bounced back from this performance though and O’Gara
believes that he deserves much credit for this.

Speaking about his Irish team-mate’s progress, O’Gara said that Earls has been  ‘well managed’ since that day and this has resulted in his kicking game becoming ‘really good’.

As for Earls himself, well he is pleased with how he is moving forward as a professional. He said that even though he ‘struggled for the first two weeks’, what has happened since then has been ‘unbelievable’.

With the backing of experienced professionals like O’Gara and Paul O’Connell, Earls has played himself into contention for a place in the side ahead of the second test against South Africa this weekend.

Considering that his aims for the season were to ‘get into the Munster side’, it has been a remarkable few months for Earls and hopefully, it will get even better by the end of this tour.

15. Lee Byrne (Wales)
14. Tommy Bowe (Ireland)
13. Brian O’Driscoll (Ireland)
12. Jamie Roberts (Wales)
11. Ugo Monye (England)
10. Stephen Jones (Wales)
9. Mike Phillips (Wales)
8. Jamie Heaslip (Ireland)
7. David Wallace (Ireland)
6. Tom Croft (England)
5. Paul O’Connell (Ireland) C
4. Alun-Wyn Jones (Wales)
3. Phil Vickery (England)
2. Lee Mears (England)
1. Gethin Jenkins (Wales)

Replacements:
16. Matthew Rees (Wales)
17. Adam Jones (Wales)
18. Donncha O’Callaghan (Ireland)
19. Martyn Williams (Wales)
20. Harry Ellis (England)
21. Ronan O’Gara (Ireland)
22. Rob Kearney (Ireland)

Ruan Pienaar is the starting fly half and Morne Steyn will be on the bench. Pienaar has had little game time this season due to injury so I’m expecting a change possibly half way through the game. Heinrich Brussow has been named the starting open side flanker in place of Burger and this no doubt has to do with Burgers calf injury.

See the list below:

Springboks:
15 Frans Steyn
14 JP Pietersen
13 Adi Jacobs
12 Jean de Villiers
11 Bryan Habana
10 Ruan Pienaar
9 Fourie du Preez
8 Pierre Spies
7 Juan Smith
6 Heinrich Brussow
5 Victor Matfield
4 Bakkies Botha
3 John Smit (c)
2 Bismarck du Plessis
1 Beast Mtawarira
Subs: 16 Deon Carstens, 17 Gurthro Steenkamp, 18 Andries Bekker, 19 Danie Rossouw, 20 Ricky Januarie, 21 Morne Steyn, 22 Jaque Fourie.

The Southern Kings are not a regular team and have been put together for this Lions tour and possibly will be added to the Super 14 which of course will become the Super 15.

British & Irish Lions:
15 Keith Earls (Ireland), 14 Shane Williams (Wales), 13 Riki Flutey (England), 12 Gordon D’Arcy (Ireland), 11 Luke Fitzgerald (Ireland), 10 James Hook (Wales), 9 Mike Blair (Scotland), 8 Andy Powell (Wales), 7 Joe Worsley (England), 6 Nathan Hines (Scotland), 5 Donncha O’Callaghan (Ireland, C), 4 Simon Shaw (England), 3 Euan Murray (Scotland), 2 Ross Ford (Scotland), 1 Andrew Sheridan (England).

Subs:
16 Matthew Rees (Wales), 17 Adam Jones (Wales), 18 Tom Croft (England), 19 David Wallace (Ireland), 20 Harry Ellis (England), 21 Ronan O’Gara (Ireland), 22 Ugo Monye (England)

Donncha O'Callaghan will be the Lions Skipper this Tuesday

The tactical kicking of the All Blacks was also a concern and Wayne Smith said himself at half time that the AB’s were kicking the ball too far and not getting any good chasers to put pressure onto the French. Once again proving the fact that a kick in Rugby is only as good as its chase. However for me the biggest weakness that was shown by the AB’s was the feeble tackling. Francois Trinh-Duc managed to bounce off 4 tackles before he crossed the try line.

Have a look at the Highlights Video below. Congrats France!

James Hook was given the responsibility of having a shot at goal from 40m which he managed to put over for the win.

Well done to W.P. for putting up a good fight and well done to the Lions for remaining unbeaten so far on tour.

Below is the highlights video of the match.