Winners and losers - Six Nations, a league without relegation

The headlines in The Daily Telegraph talked about the Aviva Premiership and whether they plan to scrap relegation. If you are currently in the Greene King IPA Championship then this is concerning news. The ethos of winning and losing changes if a league is ring fenced. Many argue that such elitism will allow England to win World Cups into the future.

Elitism and ring fencing can have problems of its own. The marketing folk will argue about “the product”. The purists will argue that teams like Exeter will not have a chance to shine. The “product” dictates that, in football, the English Premier League still has relegation. The fans want it and guess what so do the TV rights holders because the top of the league can get very predictable and boring; whilst the scrap for survival can be a edge of the seat stuff.

London Welsh have demonstrated that it can be difficult to be very late entrants to the top flight; squad depth, continuity of players, funding to name a few of the reasons.

Adversity has led clubs like Wasps and Sale to turn to young English players and their recent results are an exciting addition to top flight English Rugby. So will this benefit the National team; we will see this weekend in the Six Nations; a league without relegation.

Six Nations Round 3 sees three mouthwatering clashes with the two top teams, Ireland and England playing, while France and Wales play to stay in contention, and Scotland hosts Italy with the wooden spoon at stake. Sure there are two weeks left, but when you have the top two favourites playing each other on Sunday and the third and fourth favourites playing each other after the fifth and sixth favourites then you can't help but think that the title could well be decided this weekend.

There are still two rounds to go, so anything is possible, but it is hard to think that Ireland and England aren't the best two teams from what we have seen so far.

Scotland vs Italy

Both Scotland and Italy are sitting at the foot of the Six Nations ladder, although Scotland has a superior points difference after losing narrowly to both France and Wales. Italy have had two comfotable defeats against Ireland and England and so both teams head to Murrayfield desperate for a win. Both sides are realistically out of contention now, and so they must aim to avoid the dreaded wooden spoon.

Italy has made six changes with Josh Furno returning to the lineout having the biggest impact on www.testrugby.com managers, joining Leonardo Ghiraldinhi, Sergio Parrise, Luke MacLean, George Biagi, Francesco Minto and Lucas Morisi as some of the good value Italian players who make plenty of tackles.

Scotland's main concern has been who to start in the Number 10 jersey following the ban of Finn Russell. Peter Horne gets the honour. This game could be one where the Scotland outside backs actually score some good fantasy rugby points with Stuart Hogg the likely benefactor. Some other Scotland players like Ross Ford and Jonny Gray are two worthwhile purchases.

Neither team is known for setting alight the Six Nations 2015 with attacking rugby, with both teams favouring their strong packs. A daytime game might help with some attacking rugby and this should help this game become more enjoyable for fans.

Tipping advice: Scotland has won 10 from 11 at home against Italy with an average score of 27-16 and this probably will be similar to what unfolds this weekend. Italy last beat Scotland in 2012 and they have some tight matches in Italy, but Rome is completely different to Edinburgh. These two teams have also shared some nailbiters at neutral venues. Italy hasn't won in Scotland since 2007 and this trend looks set to continue.

My pick: Scotland by 12 points

France vs Wales

France coach PSA has made some changes to his team this week for their must win clash with Wales. It will be interesting to see how Morgan Parra goes in a starting role and if he kicks goals or not?

This would affect Camille Lopez's points production as he has been a good fantasy rugby player. Other options for fantasy rugby players of www.testrugby.com includes Guilhem Guirado, Yoann Maestri, Bernard Le Roux, Yoann Huget, while cut price centre Rémi Lamerat is a bargain. France are used to changes being made and so these changes shouldn't affect them too much.

Wales has a far more settled look to them, but they will need drastic improvements if they are to beat France. We must remember that Wales lost to England in Wales, and then only just beat Scotland. They have some good www.testrugby.com in Toby Faletau, Alun Wyn Jones, Leigh Halfpenny, Jamie Roberts and Liam Williams are worth considering.

This game will be another close one with both teams desperate to remain in contention for the Six Nations 2015 title.

Tipping advice: There have been some classic matches played between these two teams. Unfortunately both of these teams require some fine tuning if they are to challenge England and Ireland for the Six Nations title this year. France has a 24-18 head to head winning record for matches played in Paris.

Wales did win the last time these two teams met in Paris in 2013, but one gets the feeling that Wales are past their best. France has won three of the last four against Wales in Paris. Wales won the last three matches between these two teams thanks to some good defense in keeping France to under 10 points.

My pick: France by 6 points

Ireland vs England

When writing this, neither side had been named for this epic battle. Mike Brown may not be playing for England. Brown will be a big loss for England and this tips the scales in the favour of the home team, along with their home advantage and Six Nations form. Ireland are slight favourites for this match which is almost like a final, although there are still two rounds left after this one.

For www.testrugby.com managers, Simon Zebo, Jonathan Sexton, Jared Payne, Paul O'Connell and Rory Best are good options, while George Ford, Jonathan Joseph, Billy Vunipola and Dave Attwood are worth a shot.

Tipping advice: England leads 28-31 head to head vs Ireland at Lansdowne Road. They won the last two games there too. England has won the last four games against Ireland overall, including a win at Twickenham 13-10. This Ireland team will be hard to beat at home, with a large part of the squad from last year's Six Nations, but they will rely heavily on Jonny Sexton. This match should be a cracker.

My pick: Ireland by 3 points.

Who are you picking to win Six Nations Round 3 games? Will the winner of Ireland vs England win the Six Nations title?