Ireland v Wales Prediction, Preview & Odds – Six Nations

We have an Ireland v Wales prediction for you plus a breakdown of the odds, team news and matchups ahead of this Saturday’s Six Nations test.

How To Watch Ireland v Wales

When is Ireland v Wales

Kick-off is scheduled for 2.15 pm on Saturday, February 24th.

TV Channel

In Ireland you can watch the game on RTÉ2 with pre-match coverage from 1.20 pm.

Ireland v Wales will be broadcast on ITV1 in the UK with pre-match buildup from 1.25 pm.

Live Stream

In Ireland you can livestream the game on RTÉ Player.

Those in the UK can stream Ireland v Wales on ITVX.

Who are the officiating team?

Referee: Pierre Brousset (FFR)

Assistant Referees: Mathieu Raynal (FFR), Luc Ramos (FFR)

TMO: Eric Gauzins (FFR)

Where is Ireland v Wales Being Played

Ireland are the home team for this game which means it will be played in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland.

Ireland v Wales Odds

Ireland are 1/25 favourites to beat Wales in this game according to the latest Six Nations odds at BoyleSports.

Wales are 11/1 underdogs to secure a shock win. Meanwhile, the draw is priced up at massive odds of 80/1.

Handicap Betting

Ireland: -22 @ 10/11

Wales: +22 @ 10/11

Handicap Draw: -22 @ 18/1

Click Below For Our Live Ireland v Wales Odds

Team News

Ireland Team News

Following the bye-week in the Six Nations, the Ireland squad reassembled on Sunday evening with Munster pairing Oli Jager (prop) and Thomas Ahern (lock) joining the squad. This was a decision made following Iain Henderson picking up a foot injury for Ulster vs Ospreys.

Caelan Doris was seemingly held out of training on Wednesday which puts into question his fitness for Saturday’s match.

Ireland’s team is yet to be announced and we will update here once Andy Farrell makes the squad announcement.

Wales Team News

You can see the full Wales lineup for this game against Ireland below.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 𝐗𝐕 𝐂𝐘𝐌𝐑𝐔 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

👊 The Welsh team to take on Ireland

⚔️ Un newid i geisio gorchfygu'r Gwyddelod#SixNationsRugby | #IrelandWeek pic.twitter.com/smWXiTqkmi

— Welsh Rugby Union 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@WelshRugbyUnion) February 20, 2024

Wales Head Coach Warren Gatland has made just one change to the starting XV that narrowly lost out to England in the last round. That change is at 10 where Sam Costelow comes back into the side having started in their opening-round game against Scotland before leaving the game due to injury. Ioan Lloyd, who started at fly-half against England will revert to the bench while Cai Evans will drop from the 23-man squad.

Ireland v Wales Weather Forecast

Perfect dry conditions for rugby are expected on Sunday, with no rain hours before kick-off.

Temperature

The temperature is predicted to be between 6 and 8°C throughout the game.

Wind

The forecast is for winds of roughly 16 Km/h with gusts of up to 35 Km/h.

Rain

On Saturday there is a 5 % chance of rainfall at kick-off which rises to 15% from 3 pm.

Ireland v Wales Preview

Ireland’s Form

Form Coming into the 2024 Six Nations

Ireland entered the 2023 Rugby World Cup as the World Number 1 side, and despite another Quarter-final stage exit, they remain in the top two in the world rankings behind only World Cup winners South Africa.

Ireland topped their pool at the tournament, including a brilliant 8-13 victory against the aforementioned winners South Africa. However, it was a painful exit again in the Quarter-finals, losing out to New Zealand 24-28 in a classic. The All Blacks went on to lose the final 11-12.

2024 Six Nations

Ireland opened their Six Nations title success last Friday Night with a brilliant 17-38 against France which saw them establish themselves as favourites for the competition alongside being favourites for the Grand Slam.

That French victory was followed by a routine 36-0 victory against Italy which put Ireland top of the table on 10-points 2 points ahead of England.

Wales Form

Form Coming Into The 2024 Six Nations

At the 2023 Rugby World Cup, Wales won all 4 pool games against Fiji, Portugal, Australia and Georgia to top Pool C ahead of second-placed Fiji (who they beat narrowly 32-26 in their opening game).

Wales were knocked out of the tournament 17-29 at the Quarter-Final stage against an Argentina team that would go on to be hammered by the All Blacks.

2024 Six Nations

Wales put in a spirited second-half performance against Scotland which saw them grab 2 losing bonus points on the opening weekend of the Six Nations in a 26-27 scoreline.

Their second game came against England where they lost narrowly on a 16-14 scoreline for which they earned a losing bonus point.

Ireland Attack v Wales Defence

Ireland put on a brilliant attacking display against the French, scoring 5 tries through Gibson-Park, Beirne, Nash, Sheehan and Kelleher. Crowley also had some brilliant moments for Ireland and made 5/5 conversions with 1/2 penalties in a promising first game as Ireland’s newest starting 10.

That victory was followed by a 36-0 win over Italy where a rotated Irish side still scored 6 tries from 5 different scorers. However, Crowley was not as proficient from the boot in this one as he only made 2/5 conversions.

Wales conceded 27 points against Scotland, including 3 tries, but notably all of those points came in the first 42 minutes of the match with them flipping the game on its head for the last 38 minutes of the match rendering Scotland scoreless.

They conceded 16 points against England with those points coming from two tries and two penalties.

Wales Attack v Ireland Defence

Wales scored 4 tries against Scotland, through Botham, Dyer, Wainwright and Mann with their other scores coming with Lloyd making 3/4 conversions. That was followed by 14 points against England through a penalty try, a Mann try and 1/1 conversions from Lloyd.

However, they’re due to come up against an even stronger defence against Ireland with the Irish conceding only 2 tries against the free-flowing French in France and despite having rotated managed to keep a rising Italian side scoreless.

Ireland v Wales Rugby Head-To-Head

All-Time Head-To-Head Record

Ireland and Wales have played each other in rugby union since 1882. A total of 134 matches have been played, with Wales winning 70 matches, Ireland winning 57 matches and seven matches drawn

Head-To-Head Results Last Five Matches

2023: Ireland won 10-34 in Millenium Stadium
2022: Ireland won 29-7 in Aviva Stadium
2021: Wales won 21-16 in Millenium Stadium
2020: Ireland won 24-14 in Aviva Stadium
2019: Wales won 25-7 in Millenium Stadium

Trends

Ireland have won 7 out of their last 10 matches against Wales.

Key Players

Joe McCarthy – Ireland

The Leinster Lock looks to be Ireland’s newest star, coming into this campaign with 5 Senior Caps for Ireland he was Man of the Match in the first-round game against France. McCarthy was effectively thrown into the deep end against the French pack and came up trumps, laying down a marker in everything he did.

He played the full 80 minutes in their 36-0 victory against Italy. The 22-year-old looks to have a massive future ahead of him with Ireland.

Aaron Wainwright – Wales

The Man of the Match in their opening round fixture against Scotland, put in a decent showing in the first half despite Wales’ overall dismal performance. However, it was in the second half where he put in a colossal showing.

Wainwright was their primary go-to man for lineouts where he carried dynamically and aggressively and was even awarded with a try for his efforts. He put in another strong showing against the English during the second round of fixtures.

Ireland v Wales Prediction & Best Bet

Prediction: Ireland 40-10 Wales

Ireland followed their brilliant performance against the French with a whitewash against Italy. This team seems to be a non-stop freight train right now and plenty are predicting their Grand Slam success.

Wales are going through a period of transition and so are very unpredictable in their performance but they will gain solace in the hard-fought nature of their opening two defeats.

Ireland should still win this game comfortably as they look to continue their Grand Slam assault.

Best Bet: Ireland by 16 to 20 Points @ 11/2

Click Below For Our LIVE Ireland v Wales Odds

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