Six Nations Championship Odds & Wooden Spoon Favorites

• With two rounds complete, England is a huge favorite to win the 2019 tournament.
• Ireland, the defending champion, is well back in 4th place.
• Italy is in last, as usual, and poised to claim its fourth straight Wooden Spoon.

The 2019 Six Nations tournament is two-rounds deep and the standings are not as expected. Seeing England at the top is no surprise, but Ireland all the way down in fourth is a huge shock.

Place	Team	Games				Points
		Played	Wins	Draws	Losses
1	England	2	2	0	0	10
2	Wales	2	2	0	0	8
3	Scotland	2	1	0	1	5
4	Ireland	2	1	0	1	4
5	France	2	0	0	2	1
6	Italy	2	0	0	2	0

The Irish lost their tournament-opener to England at home (32-20) and now face a massive uphill battle to repeat as champions.

Each team has just three games left and several pivotal fixtures already in the books. As a result, the odds to win the 2019 title have swung drastically since the tournament commenced

2019 Six Nations Championship Odds

Thanks to a dominant 32-20 win over Ireland in Dublin (their first in Ireland since 2013), England is a huge -450 favorite to win the 2019 title.

Their game against second-place Wales on Feb. 23rd will, in all likelihood, determine the winner of this tournament. The final two matches for England will be in London against Scotland and Italy.

England is currently a -180 favorite to beat Wales, even though it will be played in Cardiff.

Jonny May has been dynamite for England so far. His four tries lead the tournament and are more than the entire French team combined. They have cruised to two dominant wins despite Owen Farrell going only 6/9 on conversions and 4/5 on penalties.

Wales, 2-0 so far, is a distant second-choice in the odds at +450. While they sport a perfect 2-0 record, they haven’t exactly been dominant. They edged France 24-19 in Paris and then nipped Italy 26-15 in Rome, but they failed to capture the bonus point for scoring four tries in both games, so they trail England by two points.

With matches against England and Ireland still on the schedule, Wales is not a strong bet to go 5-0 and win the Grand Slam. But, that being said, both of those games will be in Cardiff, so bringing home their first title since 2013 is certainly possible for the 4th-ranked team in the world.

Ireland are the disappointment of the tournament to date thanks to the home loss to England. They still get to play Italy and France, which should equal two easy wins, but they also have to play Wales in Cardiff (as mentioned) and already trail England by six points.

The second-ranked team in the world will need England to falter badly to have any chance of repeating as champions, and England is showing no signs of slowing down.

Wooden Spoon Odds at 2019 Six Nations Tournament

Italy has won three straight Wooden Spoons. In its 19 year history at the tournament, the Italian national team has only not finished last on six occasions. This year, the squad is a massive -5000 favorite to win the Wooden Spoon again.

Those odds are a bit long, but Italy certainly deserves to be favored. It’s the only team with no points so far, and their next two matches are against indomitable England and a now-desperate Ireland.

[T]he Wooden Spoon will likely be decided by Italy vs. France on March 16 in Rome. France has won 37 of 40 all-time meetings, including six in a row dating back to 2013.

France, meanwhile, hosts Scotland in its next match and has a good chance to pick up at least a bonus point (for a loss of less than seven points) in that one.

In reality, the Wooden Spoon will likely be decided by Italy vs. France on March 16 in Rome. France has won 37 of 40 all-time meetings, including six in a row dating back to 2013. France is not in top form these days, however, sitting only five placed ahead of Italy in the world rugby rankings (10th vs 15th).

England and Ireland are the only countries that have not finished last since the tournament expanded to six teams back in the year 2000.  Looking at their 1000/1 and 500/1 odds, it’s safe to say that they won’t be “winning” this year, either.