Stephen Ferris predicts England and Ireland double

Ladbrokes ambassador Stephen Ferris gives his predictions for Saturday’s Autumn Nations Series matches involving England and Ireland.

England v New Zealand (Sat, 17.31)

This is the last week of Autumn international fixtures for Ireland and Scotland. Next Saturday England will host South Africa and Wales will take on Australia to finish off the Autumn Nations Series. It’s been a terrific month so far and lots of huge talking points which will keep lingering long into next year.

Every English fan will be counting down the days, hours and minutes for the All Blacks game to kick off on Saturday. It’s a 5.30pm KO from Twickenham which will see a full capacity crowd of over 80,000 people. It truly is a remarkable venue for rugby, and anyone who has managed to get a ticket will be ecstatic after superb results last week.

England stuttered against Argentina two weeks ago and lost at home which sent shockwaves through English rugby. Eddie Jones was once again faced with questions regarding his job, and if he was the right man to lead the team to another Rugby World Cup.

Eddie, with a straight bat, knocked the questions away, and was banking on a big win against Japan to relieve the pressure. Thankfully for him, that is exactly what happened. England demolished the Japanese, and it now sets up a mouth-watering clash against the All Blacks who are also hot off a big win.

New Zealand were second best to everything for 60 minutes against Scotland. Then a few substitutes came off the bench and a couple of refereeing calls went their way. In a blink of an eye, they scored two unanswered converted tries which gave them an eight-point lead with only a few minutes remaining. Yet again Scotland don’t get the job done and their bogey team continues to haunt them.

New Zealand really need to work on their discipline. Eight penalties conceded in the opposition half just let Scotland off the hook on numerous occasions. Their ball retention was also poor at times and if they are to succeed against England in their own backyard then it’s going to have to be a vastly improved performance on Saturday.

It feels like New Zealand are still finding their way under Foster, and the team doesn’t look settled yet. I don’t think there will be any experimenting done by either coach and I expect to see two fully loaded teams take the pitch and go toe-to-toe.

Predictions:

England winning margin 1-5 points @ 11/2

First try scorer – Manu Tuilagi @ 18/1

Ireland v Australia (Sat, 20.01)

Later on in the evening the Aussies will descend upon Dublin as they try to beat Ireland on their home patch. It’s an 8pm KO from the Aviva Stadium and I’m not sure too many people give Australia much of a fighting chance.

So why are Ireland going to win? They have won four of the last five meetings against Australia. They have won 11 Test matches in a row on home soil. The last time Ireland lost to a non-European country at home was against New Zealand in 2016. They really are the best team in the world right now and the stats back it up.

Australia have won just three of their last 14 games away in Europe, and they have struggled massively over the last year only winning four games from 15.

That loss to Italy last week really will dent any confidence they might have had after running the French so close the week before. After you read the above, surely there can only be one winner here, and that is Ireland.

There are several changes to the Australian team which will help them hang on in this game that little bit longer. However, they are still missing a few of their superstars to sprinkle some magic dust on this game, while Ireland welcome back a few of their superstars which won’t be great reading for the Australian camp.

Jonny Sexton is back to pull the strings and captain the team. Andrew Porter starts at loose head and brings that muscle that can hurt any team. There are a few other Irish guys that slip back into the team seamlessly, they really are a settled side.

Predictions:

Ireland winning margin 11-15 points @ 5/1

First try scorer – Dan Sheehan @ 9/1

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All odds and markets correct as of date of publication