Six Nations: Round Five predictions and teams for Saturday 19 March 2022

It’s Grand Slam showdown time in the 2022 Guinness Six Nations Rugby Championship this Saturday, with all roads leading to the last fixture of this season’s competition in Paris.

France meet England at the national stadium with a clean sweep in sight, with sole challengers Ireland attempting to put as much pressure as possible on Les Bleus when they host Scotland earlier in the day.

Bottom two Wales and Italy meet in Cardiff in the first game of the day, albeit with the wooden spoon already safely housed in Rome for another year.

The predictions for each match follow below the short preview and team news for each individual Six Nations match this coming weekend.

Wales are eyeing a late surge away from the bottom of the Six Nations Rugby Championship table when they host Italy at the Principality Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The home side have one last shot at securing a second win of a nearly-but-not-quite campaign that has seen them edged out at home by France and away to England in the last two rounds.

Such contests exist only in an alternative reality for their visitors.

The Azzurri are dead last once again and haven’t collected so much as a bonus point with one game to go, not to mention their points difference of minus 122.

Dan Biggar captains the Welsh from fly-half, with whiz kids Josh Adams and Louis Rees-Zammit forming the wing pairing.

Ange Capuozzo earns a start at full-back for the visitors following last weekend’s brace of tries, while Marco Fuser is in at lock.

Wales Starting XV: 15 Johnny McNicholl, 14 Louis Rees-Zammit, 13 Owen Watkin, 12 Uilisi Halaholo, 11 Josh Adams, 10 Dan Biggar (captain), 9 Gareth Davies, 8 Taulupe Faletau, 7 Josh Navidi, 6 Seb Davies, 5 Alun Wyn Jones, 4 Adam Beard, 3 Dillon