RBS Six Nations week five and all to play for in the early evening game between Wales and England.
First up though and we have Italy hosting Ireland. Both our picks are still playing and in the same positions Andrea Masi at fifteen for Italy and Paddy Jackson at ten for Ireland as Sexton was ruled out with injury. This is a hard game to call but we think Italy will struggle to raise there game two weeks on the trot and will go down to a narrow loss to Ireland. Both our men will feature heavily in the outcomes but Paddy Jackson will be the star turn as he develops further.
Italy v Ireland Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Date: Saturday 16 March, Kick-off: 14:30 GMT
Teams
Italy: Andrea Masi, Giovanbattista Venditti, Gonzalo Canale, Gonzalo Garcia, Luke McLean; Luciano Orquera, Edoardo Gori; Sergio Parisse (C), Simone Favaro, Alessandro Zanni; Joshua Furno, Quintin Geldenhuys; Leonardo Cittadini, Leonardo Ghiraldini, Andrea Lo Cicero
Replacements: Davide Giazzon, Michele Rizzo, Alberto De Marchi, Antonio Pavanello, Francesco Minto, Paul Derbyshire, Tobias Botes, Tommaso Benvenuti
Ireland: R Kearney, C Gilroy, B O’Driscoll, L Marshall, K Earls, P Jackson, C Murray; C Healy, R Best, M Ross, M McCarthy, D Ryan, P O’Mahony, S O’Brien, J Heaslip.
Replacement: S Cronin, D Kilcoyne, S Archer, D Toner, I Henderson, P Marshall, I Madigan, L Fitzgerald
Second up and we have the big one, our man for Wales is on the bench and may not get on again so we will look out for Alun Wyn Jones again as a fall back. Joe Launchbury starts again for England. This is another tough call and our prediction is that the England pack will stand up to the Welsh and the parity will see them home thanks to the boot of Farrell. Both sides will breach the tough defences so we will see some big hits and free flowing rugby. Champions England.
Wales v England Venue: Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Date: Saturday, 16 March Kick-off: 17:00 GMT
Teams
Wales: Leigh Halfpenny (Blues); Alex Cuthbert (Blues), Jonathan Davies (Scarlets), Jamie Roberts (Blues), George North (Scarlets); Dan Biggar (Ospreys), Mike Phillips (Bayonne); Gethin Jenkins (Toulon)(C), Richard Hibbard (Ospreys), Adam Jones (Ospreys), Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys) Ian Evans (Ospreys), Sam Warburton (Blues), Justin Tipuric (Ospreys), Toby Faletau (Dragons).
Replacements: Ken Owens (Scarlets), Paul James (Bath), Scott Andrews (Blues), Andrew Coombs (Dragons), Aaron Shingler (Scarlets), Lloyd Williams (Blues), James Hook Perpignan), Scott Williams (Scarlets)
England: A Goode (Saracens); C Ashton (Saracens), M Tuilagi (Leicester), B Barritt (Saracens), M Brown (Harlequins); O Farrell (Saracens), B Youngs (Leicester); J Marler (Harlequins), T Youngs (Leicester), D Cole (Leicester), J Launchbury (Wasps), G Parling (Leicester), T Croft (Leicester), C Robshaw (Harlequins)(C), T Wood (Northampton).
Replacements: D Hartley (Northampton), D Wilson (Bath), M Vunipola (Saracens), C Lawes (Northampton), J Haskell (Wasps), D Care (Harlequins), T Flood (Leicester), B Twelvetrees (Gloucester).
Last up for the weekend and France host Scotland kick-off is 21:00 local time making it late and cold so whichever team settles better will get ahead, we think that France will have to much grunt up front and our man Wesley Fofana will impact the game more than Johnnie Beattie leading to a French win in spite of the selection issues.
France v Scotland Venue: Stade de France, Paris. Date: Saturday, 16 March, Kick-off: 20:00 GMT
Teams
France: Yoann Huget (Toulouse); Vincent Clerc (Toulouse), Mathieu Bastareaud (Toulon), Wesley Fofana (Clermont), Maxime Médard (Toulouse); Frederic Michalak (Toulon), Morgan Parra (Clermont); Thomas Domingo (Clermont), Benjamin Kayser (Clermont), Nicolas Mas (Perpignan), Sebastien Vahaamahina (Perpignan); Yoann Maestri (Toulouse); Antoine Claassen (Castres), Thierry Dusautoir (Toulouse)(C), Louis Picamoles (Toulouse).
Replacements: Guilhem Guirado (Perpignan), Vincent Debaty (Clermont), Luc Ducalcon (Racing Metro), Christophe Samson (Castres), Yannick Nyanga (Toulouse), Maxime Machenaud (Racing Metro), Francois Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), Florian Fritz (Toulouse)/Gael Fickou (Toulouse).
Scotland: Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors), Sean Maitland (Glasgow Warriors), Sean Lamont (Glasgow Warriors), Matt Scott (Edinburgh Rugby), Tim Visser (Edinburgh Rugby), Duncan Weir (Glasgow Warriors), Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh Rugby); Ryan Grant (Glasgow Warriors), Ross Ford (Edinburgh Rugby), Euan Murray (Worcester Warriors), Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh Rugby) Jim Hamilton (Gloucester), Alasdair Strokosch (Perpignan), Kelly Brown (Saracens)(C), Johnnie Beattie (Montpellier).
Replacements: Dougie Hall (Glasgow Warriors), Moray Low (Glasgow Warriors), Geoff Cross (Edinburgh Rugby), Alastair Kellock (Glasgow Warriors), Ryan Wilson (Glasgow Warriors), Henry Pyrgos (Glasgow Warriors), Ruaridh Jackson (Glasgow Warriors), Max Evans (Castres).