Jon Newcombe has some big-priced fancies from the specials markets ahead of the Six Nations, and one banker bet not to be missed.
Rugby union betting tips: Six Nations specials
3pts Thomas Ramos top tournament points-scorer at 4/6 (Virgin Bet, BetMGM)
1pt Sam Prendergast top tournament points-scorer at 14/1 (William Hill, Ladbrokes, Coral)
2pts Immanuel Feyi-Waboso top tournament try-scorer at 9/1 (Spreadex, Sporting Index)
0.5pt Ewan Ashman top tournament try-scorer at 100/1 (Spreadex, Sporting Index)
0.5pt Max Ojomoh top tournament try-scorer at 150/1 (Spreadex, Sporting Index)
0.5pt Henry Pollock top tournament try-scorer at 28/1 (Spreadex, Sporting Index)
2pts Louis Rees-Zammit top Wales tournament try-scorer at 9/2 (Paddy Power, Sky Bet)
2pts Lowest scoring match Scotland-England at 7/1 (William Hill)
1pt Lowest scoring match Ireland-Scotland at 12/1 (William Hill, Betway)
It says a lot about George Ford’s durability as a top-class fly-half that the Englishman is second in the betting to THOMAS RAMOS, 11 years after he was the top points-scorer in the Six Nations for the first and only time in his distinguished 105-cap career.
With Fin Smith a fitness doubt for England’s opener against Wales, Ford could be set for a good run in the England No.10 jersey and be presented with enough chances to bag a fair few points, especially as his repertoire includes drop goals.
Rock-solid Ramos hard to oppose
However, it’s hard to look past odds-on favourite Thomas Ramos, whose consistency is only matched by Ronan O’Gara, the last player to finish as the top points-scorer for three championships in a row. Without wanting to put the hex on him, the French full-back, who can also play at 10, very rarely seems to get injured or dropped, and plays for a team that traditionally scores a mountain of points.
Ramos started every France game he was available for last year (eight) and averaged 13.75 points per game, totalling 110 points, including 71 in the Six Nations. Ford, who was left out of the matchday squad until coming off the bench in England’s finale against Wales, averaged 8.6 points per game.
The Six Nations top points-scorer has never come from a team scoring fewer than 100 points in a tournament, and only once in the last 15 editions has the top points-scorer come from a team outside of the top three (Maxime Machenaud in 2018 when France finished fourth).
Machenaud still came top despite scoring only 50 points, the joint-lowest total, while Jonny Wilkinson’s 89 in 2001 is a record that’s unlikely to be broken. On average, 67 points is what it takes for a player to become the Six Nations top points-scorer. And for that reason, it is highly unlikely that the top points-scorer will come from Scotland, Italy, or Wales.
Finn Russell could, at a push, provide Scotland with their first-ever individual top points-scorer. Since his three missed conversions in the narrow Calcutta Cup defeat to England, the Bath playmaker has been 100% off the kicking tee in his last four appearances in the dark blue jersey. But even in 2004, when he only missed one shot at goal the whole tournament, his tally of 55 points wasn’t enough to topple Ramos.
Dan Edwards has been similarly accurate for Wales, nailing all of his kicks in his last four international starts. But with Wales likely to struggle, there simply won’t be enough opportunities for the Ospreys player to follow in the footsteps of countrymen like Leigh Halfpenny and Stephen Jones and finish the tournament with the highest individual points tally. Italy’s Tommaso Allan could have been a decent outside bet, but he’s going to miss the championship through injury.
It's a bit of a gamble, given he’s yet to make the 10 jersey his own, but if Andy Farrell opts for SAM PRENDERGAST over Harry Byrne as his mainstay at 10, the Leinster tyro could represent value at 14/1. He was a 71 per cent kicker in last year’s Six Nations, scoring 44 points, but that dropped off to 67 per cent in the Autumn. If he can get that figure up to around 85 per cent, and weigh in with a couple of tries, he might come into the reckoning.
Louis Bielle-Biarrey broke the championship’s individual try-scoring record in last season’s title-winning success, using his blistering pace to scorch home for eight tries. And the Bordeaux-Begles speedster has shown no signs of letting up since then, scoring 16 tries in 14 club appearances this season. Normally, he’s the one looking in the rear-view mirror and seeing others trail in his wake.
Feyi-Waboso top try-scorer material
But IMMANUEL FEYI-WABOSO is another player with a double-barrelled name who has credible claims on his title. Feyi-Waboso packs plenty of punch and pace and is bang in form for Exeter. Sometimes, it defies logic how he breaks through tackles, and he is very good in the air, too, which is likely to be a well-used tactic by England, whose last top try-scorer was Jonny May in 2019. Spreadex and Sporting Index are offering a generous 9/1 – some two-and-a-half points bigger than some of their competitors.
Unsurprisingly, wing is the most common position for top try-scorers, with six of the last seven players to have either shared the accolade or won it outright (2021-25) having played there. Ireland hooker Dan Sheehan broke the monopoly when he finished joint-top with Scotland wing Duhan van der Merwe in 2024.
Sheehan is always amongst the tries and justifies being the second favourite, but when you look at the odds on offer, 6/1 as opposed to 100/1, Scotland’s record try-scoring forward EWAN ASHMAN offers more value. The powerful hooker appears to be over the neck spasm he suffered against Bath last month and, having had a couple of weeks off, should be fit and firing and ready to go.
Outside of wing and hooker, flanker HENRY POLLOCK is a young man who writes his own scripts. While he is likely to be on the bench and part of England’s ‘Pom Squad,’ the Northampton tyro never takes very long before he’s fully in the thick of the action, as was the case in Cardiff last year when he came on and bagged a brace on his Test debut.
Jonathan Joseph was the last centre to win the accolade (outright in 2015 and shared in 2017), and there is a lot to like about the 150/1 about another Bath man, MAX OJOMOH. With Ollie Lawrence doubtful for England’s opener against Wales, his club team-mate Ojomoh has another chance to build on a promising Autumn campaign and nail down his spot in the England midfield, either alongside or at the expense of Fraser Dingwall. Whereas Dingwall is the glue that knits teams together, Ojomoh has the off-the-mark pace and trickery to pull defences apart.
Rees-Zammit Mr Reliable for Wales
Given their general lack of firepower, it is hard to see anyone troubling LOUIS REES-ZAMMIT from finishing his first Six Nations back from the NFL as Wales’ top try-scorer.
Try-scoring records tumbled in 2025 and the hope is that this year’s championship brings more of the same in terms of entertainment. However, every championship has at least one stinker, or a nerve-jangling on-the-knife-edge encounter where points are at a premium.
William Hill and Betway have opened a market on the lowest-scoring match and, for good reason, England feature in the first three. The one we’ve got our eye on is the round two clash at Murrayfield, SCOTLAND VERSUS ENGLAND. Normally played in wet weather, Calcutta Cup matches in Edinburgh have traditionally been arm-wrestles decided by the boot or by close-quarters play. In the last 10 clashes in the Scottish capital, the average total points per match has only been 29.3.
IRELAND AGAINST ENGLAND at the Aviva Stadium is worth scrutiny, too. Scotland has found scoring points hard to come by against Ireland, despite their potency out wide. The last half-dozen Six Nations meetings in Dublin have yielded an average of just 37 points, and that could be brought down even further due to the fact that Ireland’s attacking rhythm has deserted them since Johnny Sexton retired, which could be further compounded by the loss of key personnel to injury.
Posted at 20:00 GMT on 01/02/26
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