After the excitement of the Rugby World Cup, international Rugby Union returns with the 2012 Six Nations as the northern hemisphere’s finest get set to battle it out for the crown. It was England’s year last year but with four of the six countries having lifted the title in the last four years competition is rife with the outright betting looking far from clear cut.

After finishing the 2011 Rugby World Cup well in profit from his match tips Tom Powell is back to try and line your pockets once again with his best selections from the Six Nations tournament. Here he serves up his top outright tips for the tournament but he’ll also be back every match week with his best selections for every Six Nations fixture.

Six Nations Tips

France to win @ 37/20 – BET NOW

Top performers at the Rugby World Cup - seeing off their main Six Nations competitors in Wales and England on the way - and so Les Tricolores rightly go into the tournament as favourites. Of the top three teams in the outright betting market France possess the easiest set of fixtures. First up fixtures at home to Italy and Ireland look straightforward wins as does a third week trip to Murrayfield. The last two fixtures (at home to England and away to Wales) are by far their trickiest but they should win at least one of those matches to grab their 18th Six nations title.

England to win the Triple Crown @ 3/1 – BET NOW

Plenty of value in our second selection here with the bookmakers believing 2012 will see no Triple Crown won. The quality gap between England, Ireland, Wales and to a lesser extent Scotland has arguably shortened but England have been handed a generous set of fixtures and will be big favourites going into each of their Triple Crown encounters. England take on both Wales and Ireland at Twickenham and boast solid home records against each so if they can come through a tricky opening match with Scotland at Murrayfield 3/1 will begin to look like great value.

Wales to win 2 fixtures @ 10/3 – BET NOW

There’ll be a lot of focus on the Welsh following their heroic displays at the Rugby World Cup but I think they’re being overestimated by many bookmakers, especially in the outright betting where they are second favourites at a best price 11/4. Defeats to France and England last year are likely to be repeated this time around and I don’t fancy their chances in Dublin in their opening fixture. Wins over Italy and Scotland are nailed on at home but that could be all they manage so 10/3 looks a big price.