Six Nations 2024 Odds: Previewing France, Ireland and England's chances

France and Ireland kickstart a heavily anticipated return of the Six Nations on Friday 2nd February at 8pm GMT. If, like many punters, you enjoy to watch and have a flutter on Rugby Union then there's no better competition for your attention than the 2024 Six Nations Championship!

Read below a breakdown of how the six competing nations - England, Ireland, France, Scotland, Wales and Italy - look entering the latest edition of the tournament and a clear picture of the outright market for this 2024 installment.

The pivotal full-back and place-kicker finished as the Six Nations top point scorer by a landslide last campaign, accumulating 84 points - a whopping 49 above the next player closest to him in Ireland's Johnny Sexton.

In the absence of Antoine Dupont and other notable exclusions, there will be more onus on Ramos to deliver the goods for the competition's favourites. Over 31 matches for France so far, the 28-year-old has made 54 conversions and scored 274 points.

France's trusted winger claimed the 2023 Six Nations top try scorer prize after crossing the white line five times in as many fixtures. Les Bleus are well fancied to bounce back from World Cup defeat with a victorious Six Nations Championship campaign, with Penaud expected to play a crucial role in this achievement.

He's managed 20 tries in the last 16 matches for his country, recording 13 clean breaks at last year's Rugby World Cup - the most of any player participating at the tournament. Having racked up 406m of carries and beating 25 defenders in his 2023 campaign, we expect nothing less than another consistent showing from France's wing.

France - 11/10

The Blues open their campaign with a potential title decider against Ireland on Friday night, and despite key absentees the boys in blue, white and red are positioned as the 2024 Six Nations favourites at 11/10. 

Fabien Galthie's side are without their pivotal half-back pairing, headlined by captain and three-time Player of the Championship Antoine Dupont's decision to play for France's Sevens in pursuit of his Olympic dream instead. The scrum-half is tracking to be an all-time great, with his unparalleled ability to control a match determined to be a crucial miss for Les Bleus.

Playmaker Thomas Ramos, however, could offset having no Dupont or partner in crime Romain Ntamack, he is expected to be near the top of the points-scoring charts once again by the time the Championships end in March. 2022's Grand Slam winners could achieve a new record of five titles should they be crowned champions in March - a figure which would separate them from the four which Wales currently possess.

Ireland - 8/5

Reigning champions Ireland are next in the betting at 8/5 to secure back-to-back Championships - a feat that remains unachieved since England's heroics in 2016-2017. Andy Farrell must once again pick his side back up after autumnal disappointment at the tenth Rugby World Cup, where Ireland fell to a narrow defeat by New Zealand in the first knockout phase after topping Pool B.

Historically, the Shamrocks have not fared well in Six Nations Championships directly following a World Cup, finishing third in the last three examples of such campaigns. France have been the only team to defeat Ireland across their last three Six Nations tournaments, handing them two losses, which makes Friday's opener even more paramount. Should Ireland come through the challenge in Marseille they are sure to be established as the new tournament favourites.

Ireland are incredibly efficient at defending their own try line, conceding an average of 1.2 points per opposition entry into their own 22 during last year's triumphant campaign. They also attack their opposition's try line just as effectively in the last Six Nations, with 40.4% of their attacking 22 entries resulting in a try - the best rate of any side.

England - 6/1

Following more disappointment in the 2023 Guinness Six Nations, it had looked like Steve Borthwick's time as England head coach was coming to an end. Despite what many token as an easy run of fixtures, the Red Rose delivered a noteworthy performance at last year's Rugby World Cup, suffering only one defeat at the tournament which came by a single point against eventual winners South Africa.

At 6/1 many punters may be deterred from backing a side who've picked up only two victories in each of the last three editions of this competition, with five of those six wins coming against either Wales or Italy. Recent finishes of fifth in 2021, third in 2022 and fourth in 2023 have been well below the standard England are expected to meet and there doesn't appear to be any reason to believe it's a habit they can kick to the curb this time around either.

Kicking has been a key feature of England's game, but as 2023 proved that plan didn't yield many strong results. That and the absence of captain Owen Farrell, who announced his unavailability for Six Nations selection back in November to prioritise his family's well-being, make it very unclear what England's best XV is, and steers them into the realm of propositions to avoid.

Scotland - 11/1

A record victory over Wales at Twickenham in last year's opener saw Scotland win the first two matches of a Six Nations campaign for the first time ever. Winning three of their five matches in a single tournament has become the standard for the Scots now, having done so for the fifth time in the last seven years at the 2023 Championships which was preceded by only once success in their initial 17 campaigns.

Gregor Townsend's men are the lowest double-figured team to win the 2024 renewal at 11/1. Scotland had a monumental task at the 2023 Rugby World Cup, knowing that to get out of their assigned pool they would need to beat either the reigning champions or the number one ranked team in the world to progress to the knockouts stages. The manner in which they were swept aside by both South Africa and Ireland proved disappointing for them, however, a third place finish does mean they have qualified for 2027's next installment.

Wales - 28/1

2019 and 2021 champions Wales have been tormented by inconsistency in recent Six Nations campaigns, placing third in three of the last five editions and winning just a solitary game in consecutive tournaments. In Warren Gatland the Welsh have a leader who has overcome the odds and achieved greatness through limited expectations before, which he'll certainly have to do again if he is to beat the 28/1 tag facing Wales pre-tournament.

2012 sticks out as the best example of this, with a young, unfancied Welsh team entering the Six Nations under Gatland without being given much hope. They would later go on to secure the first of back-to-back titles in this competition - something the Welsh faithful will be hoping for a repeat of 12 years later.

Italy - 300/1

Serial Wooden Spoon title-holders Italy entered the 2023 tournament in high spirits after rounding out their 2022 campaign with a memorable 22-21 victory over Wales which ended a 36-match Six Nations losing streak stretching back to 2015. The campaign started impressively by running defending champions France close in a 29-24 opener. The rest of the campaign then followed a familiar pattern as the Azzurri ended with five straight defeats and a points difference of -60.

It would take nothing short of a miracle for Italy to be crowned Six Nations champions for the first time in the nation's history and odds of 300/1 support those claims. With an unfavourable draw seeing only two of their five matches hosted on home turf, don't expect them to spring any surprises at the 2024 competition.