By Adam Ellis
Round Three of the Six Nations 2018 takes us to Marseille, Dublin and Edinburgh with Ireland and England’s Grand Slams hopes on the line, in which you can get closer to the action with these Six Nation 2018 Packages.
It’s the two winless nations who kick off the weekend’s action when the Stade Velodrome hosts its first Six Nations match on Friday evening.
Attention then turns to the Aviva Stadium on Saturday when Wales will be looking to inflict Ireland’s first home defeat in the tournament since 2013. After matches against Scotland and England, Wales hold the best defensive record so far in the competition conceding a total of 19 points.
Scotland and England will walk out at Murrayfield with the Calcutta Cup pitchside in a match that has traditionally seen defence play a key part. Scotland have failed to score a try on home soil in the past six meetings of rugby‘s oldest rivalry, with head coach Gregor Townsend saying earlier this week his side need their ‘best ever performance’ against the reigning champions.
France v Italy, Marseille (Friday, 20:00)
France: 15 Hugo Bonneval, 14 Benjamin Fall, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Geoffrey Doumayrou , 11 Rémy Grosso, 10 Lionel Beauxis, 9 Maxime Machenaud; 1 Jefferson Poirot, 2 Guilhem Guirado (Capt), 3 Rabah Sliman, 4 Paul Gabrillagues, 5 Sébastien Vahaamahina, 6 Wenceslas Lauret, 7 Yacouba Camara, 8 Marco Tauleigne
Replacements: 16 Adrien Pelissié, 17 Dany Priso, 18 Cedate Gomes Sa, 19 Romain Taofifénua, 20 Kélian Galletier, 21 Baptiste Couilloud, 22 François Trinh-Du, 23 Gaël Fickou
Italy: 15 Matteo Minozzi, 14 Tommaso Benvenuti, 13 Tommaso Boni, 12 Tommaso Castello, 11 Mattia Bellini, 10 Tommaso Allan, 9 Marcello Violi; 1 Andrea Levotti, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 3 Simone Ferrari, 4 Alessandro Zanni, 5 Dean Budd, 6 Sebastian Negri, 7 Maxime Mbanda, 8 Sergio Parisse (Capt)
Replacements: 16 Luca Bigi, 17 Nicola Quaglio, 18 Tiziano Pasquali, 19 George Biagi, 20 Federico Ruzza, 21 Edoardo Gori, 22 Carlo Canni, 23 Jayden Hayward
Ireland v Wales, Dublin (Saturday, 14:15)
Ireland: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Keith Earls, 13 Chris Farrell, 12 Bundee Aki, 11 Jacob Stockdale, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Conor Murray; 1 Cian Healy, 2 Rory Best (Capt), 3 Andrew Porter, 4 James Ryan, 5 Devin Toner, 6 Peter O’Mahony, 7 Dan Leavy, 8 CJ Stander
Replacement: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Jack McGrath, 18 John Ryan, 19 Quinn Roux, 20 Jack Conan, 21 Kieran Marmion, 22 Joey Carbery, 23 Fergus McFadden
Wales: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Liam Williams, 13 Scott Williams, 12 Hadleigh Parkes, 11 Steff Evans, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Gareth Davies; 1 Rob Evans, 2 Ken Owens, 3 Samson Lee, 4 Cory Hill, 5 Alun Wyn Jones (Capt), 6 Aaron Shingler, 7 Josh Navidi, 8 Ross Moriarty
Replacements: 16 Elliot Dee, 17 Wyn Jones, 18 Tomas Francis, 19 Bradley Davies, 20 Justin Tipuric, 21 Aled Davies, 22 Gareth Anscombe, 23 George North
Scotland v England, Edinburgh (Saturday, 16:45)
Scotland: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Tommy Seymour, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Pete Horne, 11 Sean Maitland, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Greig Laidlaw; 1 Gordon Reid, 2 Stuart McInally, 3 Simon Berghan, 4 Grant Gilchrist, 5 Jonny Gray, 6 John Barclay (Capt), 7 Hamish Watson, 8 Ryan Wilson
Replacements: 16 Scott Lawson, 17 Jamie Bhatti, 18 William Nel, 19 Tim Swinson, 20 David Denton, 21 Ali Price, 22 Nick Grigg, 23 Blair Kinghorn
England: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Anthony Watson, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Owen Farrell, 11 Jonny May, 10 George Ford, 9 Danny Care; 1 Mako Vunipola, 2 Dylan Hartley (Capt), 3 Dan Cole, 4 Joe Launchbury, 5 Maro Itoje, 6 Courtney Lawes, 7 Chris Robshaw, 8 Nathan Hughes
Replacements: 16 Jamie George, 17 Joe Marler, 18 Harry Williams, 19 George Kruis, 20 Sam Underhill, 21 Richard Wigglesworth, 22 Ben Te’o, 23 Jack Nowell
