Six Nations Review
France claimed their first Six Nations Grand Slam since 2004 to the delight of any spread punters that bought their outright index (60pts to the winner, 40pts for second, 20pts for third, 10pts for fourth and 5pts for fifth). Ireland, last year's Grand Slam champions, finished runners-up but to the disappointment of those that bought their win index against Scotland even failed to claim the Triple Crown. Ireland finished this year's tournament with three wins from their five matches having lost their last game 23-20 to Scotland at Croke Park after a late Dan Parks penalty. The winning kick meant that Scotland finished up with one win, leaving Italy with the Wooden Spoon.
Italy did show steady improvement in the try department and they pushed England all the way in Rome. Spread bettors that sold England's supremacy spread for that match will have been pleased to see it settled at just five points. Overall the Italians scored five tries and amassed 69 points during the Championship and collectively the six sides scored 594 points and 48 tries. Les Bleus led the way in the total tries market with 13 from their five matches. England's six tries will not have pleased those that bought their quote at the start of the tournament.
England's poor try return was also reflected in their tournament shirts spread make-up. The red Rose finished with a make-up of 52, just 15 higher than the Italians with the lowest spread make-up. Sellers of the spread will even have been pleased that one of the six England tries was scored by Dan Cole, the prop who wears number three. The highest scoring game involved France and Italy in Paris, where a total of 66 points were accumulated on the spread. Buyers of total points that afternoon will have been ecstatic to see the French run in six tries. It took until the last game of the tournament before we saw the lowest scoring match between France and England, which only accumulated 22 points, and featured only one very early try, to the delight of spread sellers of the time of the first match try.
England's 2009 Six Nations tournament will largely be remembered for the side's disciplinary problems but yellow cards were far rarer for Martin Johnson's team this year. Overall the tournament saw 10 sin-bins and buyers of the spread can count themselves unfortunate that Jerry Flannery was not penalised at the time for his foul in the Ireland versus France match.
Sporting Index's wides market (number of unsuccessful kicks at goal) made-up 55 from the 15 matches. Even Jonny Wilkinson had an off-day with the boot against the Irish, when the fly-half missed three kicks including one directly in front of the posts. However, buyers of the tournament drop goal spread will be grateful Wilkinson was able add one to clinch the game in Rome. One market that saw a significant profit for spread sellers was Sporting Index's winning distances spread. The traders set the pre-tournament mark at 215 but the competitiveness of the tournament saw that only 158 points were made-up, for a healthy 57 point profit for sellers.
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