This Saturday sees Italy v Wales, 14:30, England v France at 17:00 and on Sunday it’s the turn of Scotland to take on Ireland at 15:00. I imagine the Irish will be screaming for England to hand France their asses on a plate and send them packing back to Paris, if only because they hold out a teeny bit of hope that a win in Dublin on March 19th may keep them in with a shot of winning the tournament.

But they would have to see off Scotland first and coach Andy Robinson has dropped four players for Sunday’s Six Nations match against Ireland, including Dan Parks who is being replaced at stand-off by Ruaridh Jackson. Ireland, themselves, are set to start Ronan O’Gara this weekend, having come to their senses that Sexton is a bit wet behind the ears. If they could just drop D’Arcy aswell they might actually have a chance!

Clearly the French are not immune to bit of self-doubt France as they have rung the changes for Saturday’s crunch Six Nations encounter with England at Twickenham. Back row Sebastien Chabal, wing Vincent Clerc, scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili and centre Yannick Jauzion are recalled. Maxime Medard had been moved to full-back in place of Clement Poitrenaud, but is a doubt with a thigh injury.

Following an incredible start from Ireland, they were left wanting as they gave away school-boy error penalty after penalty allowing France to maximise what little possession that garnered in the first half.

With three tries under their belt, Ireland really did seem like they were going to storm the new Aviva Stadium in Dublin and romp home to victory but quel suprise, the French had other plans and with a bad mis-tackle from D’Arcy and some appalling mis-kicks from O’Leary and soon it was 15-25 to the Bleus.

A well deserved and well earned try 10 mins from the end left Ireland needing another score to level the playing but it was not to be and so ends another ‘always the bridesmaid, never the bride’ performance from Ireland!

England faired much, much better and their comprehensive win over Italy left them euphoric, particularly as history was made in the form of Chris Ashton. Ashton, 23, went over four times in the 59-13 thumping of Italy to become the first Englishman to achieve the feat in a Five or Six Nations match since 1914. And if their performance is anything to go by then France will have their work more than cut out for them when they next meet on February 26th.

For all of the latest and best Six Nations Odds, just check out the table below…

Following their win against England on Saturday by 20-16, Ireland are second favourites to become outright winners with Paddy Power bookmakers at 10/1 and with England now at 20/1. Of course France are still odds-on favourites at 1/25 which in lay man’s terms means that for every £25 you put on France you’ll win £1 so basically you’re not going to make a fortune out of that bet. Don’t despair though, England still have to play France and despite their recent results, they are playing well and do tend to raise their game when faced with serious opposition so they could level out this competition on the last day – March 20th.

Each team has two fixtures left which are as follows:

Saturday, 13 March 2010
Ireland v Wales, 14:30
Scotland v England, 17:00

Sunday, 14 March 2010
France v Italy, 14:30

Saturday, 20 March 2010
France v England, 19:45
Ireland v Scotland, 17:00
Wales v Italy, 14:30

Is it going to be France’s year again in 2010, only England or Italy can stop them now so watch this space…