👀 Six Nations Round 4 Preview

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P.S. Our team builder has been updated to show you which line-ups have been implemented into the prediction engine

⏰ The Round 4 deadline is 7:30pm on Friday ahead of Ireland v Wales.

🤕 Alex Mitchell & James Lowe have been ruled out of the tournament. Taine Plumtree has been sent back to his club, and Sam Costellow continues his rehab in camp.

🇫🇷 Mathieu Jalibert, Yoram Moefana and Nicolas Depoortere all return and Thibaud Flament and Emmanuel Meafou help make up on a strong 6-2 bench.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Ben Spencer starts at 9, with Henry Arundell, Freddie Steward making way for Cadan Murley & Eliott Daly. Fin Smith is preferred to George Ford, with Seb Atkinson in for the injured Ollie Lawrence. Henry Pollock returns to the bench after his first start against Ireland.

🍀 Dan Sheehan is rested, with Ronan Kelleher promoted to the starting XV. Jack Conan, Nick Timoney and Caelan Doris make up a big back row. Jacob Stockdale starts on the wing. Uncapped Nathan Doak is on the bench with Joe McCarthy, Josh van der Flier and Tom Farrell.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Jack Dempey starts in the back row with Rory Darge and Matt Fagerson after an getting over an injury sustained in the match against England.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Dan Edwards starts at 10 with Ellis Mee on the wing. Olly Cracknell is back into the matchday 23 with Jarrod Evans and Louie Hennessey also on the bench.

⏮️ Here’s our Round 3 Recap for top performers & price changes.

To help you see which way these games might go, we’ve checked the Rugby4Cast algorithm.

💡 Predictions tell you which teams might be scoring points with the ball (tries, assists, metres made), but also without the ball (tackles, breakdown steals).

🍀 Ireland 40–8 Wales

After a big win at the Allianz, Ireland are be back in the hunt for a title, if not certainly a Triple Crown. Wales will be hoping to play as well as they did last year.

Last year’s result: Wales 18–27 Ireland
Last years POTM: Jamison Gibson-Park

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scotland 25–30 France 🇫🇷

Scotland secured a bonus-point win in Cardiff against a much-improved Wales side. Undefeated France look unstoppable, but a win would see Scotland’s title hoped revived…it’s a big one! Darcy Graham starts.

Last year’s result: France 35–16 Scotland
Last years POTM: Yoram Moefana

🇮🇹 Italy 16–28 England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

England's title chances are gone after two consecutive defeats. Italy have never beaten England, but surely this is their best-ever chance. With a fallow week run-up, can Quesada’s men pile the misery on Borthwick?

Last year’s result: England 47–24 Italy
Last years POTM: Ollie Chessum

Must-haves

Thomas Ramos 🇫🇷 (18.6★), as per usual.

Robert Baloucoune 🍀 (11.5★) has a higher xP (31.6) than Ramos and Louis Bielle-Biarrey 🇫🇷 (17.1★).

At least one of Caelan Doris 🍀 (13.6★) and Jack Conan 🍀 (13.6★) should make it into your team. They have xPs of 33.7 and 38.2 respectively. We’re going for Conan.

Tomasso Menoncello 🇮🇹 (15.2★) is a logical choice against an England team that have struggled to defend against width alongside Stuart McCloskey 🍀 (12.7★) with an xP of 29.

Antoine Dupont 🇫🇷 (16.3★) scored 91 points against Italy last year. Shoo-in.

Matthieu Jalibert 🇫🇷 (16.4★) has an average of 69.5 points in the two games he’s played. He has 33.2xP for this round. Jack Crowley 🍀 (12.8★) is the next best pick with 26.1xP. We recommend going for one of these two.

Budget Picks & Differentials

Can’t quite make your salary cap stretch, or just want some differential picks?

Nick Timoney 🍀 (10.5★) has the highest xP out of anyone for this round (43.9). Most people will go for Conan or Doris. Big opportunity?

Cadan Murley 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (8.6★) comes back into the team, and he’s got an xP of 27.6, just 1.1 behind LBB.

If you want to take a little risk, or have French and Irish players in other positions already, you could go for Finn Russell 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (14★), Fin Smith 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (11.5★) or Paolo Garbisi 🇮🇹 (12.8★) at 10.

Here’s the team with the highest Expected Points (xP) tally.

💰 Team cost: 196.5★
📊 Expected Points (Starters): 401.7 points
©️ Captain: Nick Timoney 🍀 (43.9 → 87.8 xP)
🚀 Super Sub: Michael Milne 🍀 (16.1 → 48.3 xP)

Total xP: 493.9 points

*Super sub’s xP is triple their actual xP.

Probably a little too England-heavy… What do you think of this team?

💰 Team cost: 218.3★
📊 Expected Points (Starters): 403.3

Total xP: 465.1 points

We’re not completely sold on this team, so we might change it before the deadline…

Captain

At the moment, we’ve gone for Thomas Ramos 🇫🇷 (18.6★), with 30.6xP. He’s the competition’s top fantasy scorer, he’s in a strong French team and even if it’s a tight game, he should be picking up points for kicking. Any tries or assists are a bonus.

Alternative captain picks:

Super Sub

It’s Henry Pollock 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (14.1★) with 10.4xP

Other options include:

Lenni Nouchi 🇫🇷 (9.1★) = 11.8xP
Henry Pollock 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (14.1★) = 10.4xP
Baptiste Serin 🇫🇷 (8.8★) = 9.4xP
Sam Underhill 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (13.7★) = 8.9xP
Marcus Smith 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (12★) = 8.7xP
Emmanuel Meafou 🇫🇷 (9.6★) = 8.3xP
Peato Mauvaka 🇫🇷 (11.9★) = 8.1xP
Josh Bayliss 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (10.2★) = 7.8xP
Joe McCarthy 🍀 (11.3★) = 6.7xP