Ireland vs Scotland Prediction and Betting Tips: Best bets for Six Nations match

Ireland are in pole position to lift the Six Nations trophy for the second consecutive year, but they could be made to work for the victory by Scotland, who are looking to secure their first Triple Crown since 1990 at the Aviva Stadium.

Andy Farrell’s men were denied the opportunity of consecutive Grand Slams after last weekend's last-gasp defeat to England, but they are still in the box seat to claim the championship and Scotland's last win in Dublin was some 14 years ago.

Team news

Ireland have named an unchanged starting 15 from their defeat at Twickenham after winger Calvin Nash was declared fit to play despite coming off with a head injury last weekend.

Ciaran Frawley misses out on the matchday squad after failing his head injury assessment, so centre Garry Ringrose returns to the bench and could make his first appearance of the championship.

Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend has made two changes for the trip to Dublin. Centre Stafford McDowall comes in for his first Six Nations start in place of Cameron Redpath while Ben White takes over at scrum-half from George Horne.

Line-ups

Ireland: Keenan; Nash, Henshaw, Aki, Lowe; Crowley, Gibson-Park; Porter, Sheehan, Furlong; McCarthy, Beirne; O'Mahony (c), Van der Flier, Doris

Bench: Kelleher, Healy, Bealham, Byrne, Ringrose, Baird, Conan, Murray

Scotland: Kinghorn; Steyn, Jones, McDowall, Van der Merwe; Russell (co-C), White; Schoeman, Turner, Z Fagerson; Gilchrist, Cummings; Christie, Darge, Dempsey (co-C)

Bench: Ashman, Sutherland, Millar-Mills, Skinner, M Fagerson, Horne, Redpath, Rowe

Ireland’s three victories in this year's Six Nations have all been achieved by at least 20 points, but they are unlikely to find things as simple against a Scotland side who have largely impressed.

The Scots were unfortunate to lose against France earlier in the campaign and their defeat to Italy in Rome ended their hopes of a first Six Nations title. 

However, the Scots were dominant for large parts of their Calcutta Cup victory over England at Murrayfield and they have more than enough talent within their ranks to cause issues for Ireland.

That said, Scotland have struggled on their trips across the Irish Sea this century.

They have won just once away to Ireland in 20 years so it is asking a lot of Townsend’s side to put an end to that barren run with victory on Saturday. But their two losses in this year's championship have come by a combined six-point margin and they may go down only narrowly at the Aviva.

Scotland winger Van Der Merwe leads the Six Nations tryscoring charts with five scores and, at 13/8, he looks a decent bet to touch down once more in Dublin.

The 28-year-old scored a hat-trick in Scotland's 30-21 win over England as well as a brace against Wales on the opening weekend.