Rugby Betting: Six Nations 2009

England have been installed as favourites for next year's Six Nations Championship. Brian Ashton's side bounced back to form on Saturday with a 33-10 thrashing of Ireland and that has lead the bookmakers to make them the 11-8 market leaders. England finished second this year, and haven't won the tournament since they won the Grand Slam in 2003. France, the Six Nations' most successful team, are 2/1 to wrest back the title from Wales, this year's Grand Slam winners. Despite Ashton's gamble on replacing fly-half Jonny Wilkinson with tyro Danny Cipriani looking to have paid off, the 61-year-old is just evens to be at the England helm for next year's tournament. With New Zealand, South Africa and Australia all due to visit Twickenham in the autumn, there may be many who wish to take the 8-11 that he goes. Cipriani put in a polished performance at the weekend scoring 18 points, but surely even the 50/1 on offer that he breaks Wilkinson's Test points record of 1,099 is ludicrous. Ashton doesn't appear to be the coach in the most trouble though, according to the bookmakers as Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan is as big as 9-4 to be in charge for next year's championship, and 2-7 not to be. Wales's second Six Nations Grand Slam - their tenth in all - has seen the layers take Warren Gatland's very seriously and the 3/1 available to repeat 2005's success, when the ficture list was the same way round, may appeal to some.Ireland are 15-2 to win the title next year, while Scotland and Italy, who played out Saturday's wooden spoon thriller are 40/1 and 200/1 respectively.