Bernard Jackman's Six Nations predictions: Away sweep on the cards

Ex-Ireland hooker Bernard Jackman sits down with Planet Rugby’s James While to make his predictions for Round Four of this year’s Six Nations.

We have teamed up with eToro, the official investing and trading partner of Premiership Rugby, to cover the 2024 Six Nations, previewing and reviewing the entire tournament.

David Campese’s Expert Witness ahead of the fourth round, we have asked Jackman to make his predictions for the upcoming games in the championship.

And just to make it a bit of fun, we’ll be making our own predictions for each match and will track our performance week-by-week to see whether we can outsmart our illustrious guests.

Without further ado, here are Jackman’s predictions and previews.

Italy v Scotland

A win in Lille would have been some boost to Italy’s confidence, which looks to be improving under new coach Gonzalo Quesada. They were obviously helped by the red card to Jonathan Danty before half time but there was a lot to admire in the resilience they showed defensively in the first half and also some of their attacking play in the second. Individually they have some outstanding young backs but they are now starting to combine well together.

Scotland put in one of their most mature performances in a long time to retain the Calcutta Cup and Gregor Townsend’s men will look to build on that with a win in Rome before facing Ireland in Dublin. Coming back from 10-0 down and then closing out the game in a comfortable manner will do them the world of good because one thing is clear, Scotland can play and will hurt you if you have any defensive weaknesses at all.

I expect Scotland to win and come to Dublin chasing a Triple Crown on a high.

Head-to-head: Two mercurial players and talismen for their country collide at 10. Finn Russell was excellent at Murrayfield and exuded confidence and control. Paolo Garbisi is playing well despite the potential distraction of moving club mid-season from Montpelier to Toulon but it will be really interesting to see how he deals with the disappointment of having missed that last minute penalty kick that would have won the match in Lille.

Player to watch: The Italian team that brought the Azzurri into the Six Nations was based on a great forward pack, but this generation is full of talented backs and none more so that Tommaso Menoncello. The Benetton player is only 21 years of age but is a handful in the centre or on the wing. If Italy can get him the ball in any kind of space watch him wreak havoc.

England v Ireland

I am struggling to remember an Irish team going to Twickenham being as hot a favourites as they are on Saturday.

Historically being the underdog suited Ireland better but Andy Farrell’s men have become accustomed to playing with a weight of expectation behind them and tend to perform with incredible consistency.

Ireland are in great form and if you are interested in the data behind the performances they lead the stats in nearly all the key metrics with and without the ball. Having said that they have played what I think are the three weaker teams in this year’s Six Nations so far and this England team have the talent and the capacity to find a performance like they did against the Springboks in that World Cup semi-final.

The word from the English camp is that they have been focusing more on defence than attack this spring and it certainly looks like that on the pitch. Their defence has had some good moments forcing turnovers and winning the gainline battle at times, but worryingly for England when teams like Wales and Italy threw shapes at them that are consistent with how Ireland like to attack they struggled and gave up line breaks and tries.

England best chance of winning is to press pause on the evolution of their attacking game that they have promised the Twickenham faithful and go back to the contestable kicking game that Borthwick used at Leicester and up to that World Cup final.

If Ireland play to their potential they should win and go one step closer to back-to-back Grand Slams.

Head-to-head: Stuart Barnes wants England to play him at inside centre but Ben Earl is an outstanding back-row and has probably been England’s best performer so far in the competition. He comes up against one of the best number eights in the world on Saturday in Caelan Doris, who is the complete package and is likely to be the next Irish captain after Peter O’Mahony.

Player to watch: Ireland’s tighthead lock Joe McCarthy, or ‘Big Joe’ as he is called in Ireland, had the dream debut in Marseille where he was Player of the Match and took the game to a massive French Pack. The second big test for the young enforcer is Twickenham and he is up against an outstanding second-row partnership in white. If McCarthy can carry like he has done all season for Leinster and now Ireland then the Irish backs will do serious damage in behind him.

Wales v France

Warren Gatland has made some surprising selections for the must-win clash with France on Sunday and it will be interesting to see how their lineout delivers with Ryan Elias in for Elliot Dee. The Dragons combination of Dee and Aaron Wainwright has provided a consistent source of quality ball for Wales since Dee was introduced at half time in the Scotland game in Round One.

In the backs there is no George North or Nick Tompkins so it’s a chance for Owen Watkin and Joe Roberts to step up.

France are a TMO decision and the width of a post away from being zero from three and Fabien Galthie is set to ring the changes accordingly. Julien Marchand is likely at hooker and the giant Toulouse lock Emmanuel Meafou is now eligible and fit to start. Thomas Ramos is poised to take Matthieu Jalibert’s place at 10 and he should give them some of the control they have been missing.

Before Danty’s red card France were absolutely pummelling the Italians with one-out runners who, given their size and power, were making serious inroads, but the French backs wasted so many gilt edged chances that Italy were able to stay in touch.

Wales have been incredibly brave so far but if France play to anywhere near what the sum of their parts should be then they should win a close contest.

Head-to-head: Neither are household names… yet! But both Leo Barre and Cameron Winnett are very exciting prospects and their ability to counter attack could decide this contest. With the pressure on both teams to get a result, there will be a lot of tactical kicking and it’s in the make-up of Barre and Winnett to go look for small holes in the kick chase line and exploit them. Pace, footwork and evasion are just some of the qualities that both possess.

Player to watch: Nicolas Depoortere gets his chance due to Danty’s suspension but on form he deserves to start. Depoortere was the standout player in the U20 Championship-winning team of last year and has taken every opportunity that Yannick Bru has given him at Bordeaux-Begles this year. Last weekend he scored two brilliant tries against Racing 92 and could give the type of energy and spark that France have lacked.

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