The best sports on the telebox this weekend

As if the BBC don’t give us enough entertainment with Mark Lawrenson’s puzzling insights and Alan Shearer’s total lack of analytical ability, we will be treated to a rousing FA Cup double header this Sunday. Actually, that’s not true, it’s Middlesbrough/ Cardiff and Bristol Rovers/ West Brom, two ties that carry all the glamour of an incontinent tramp. While you salivate over the prospect of two of those teams ending up in the FA Cup semis, check out the rest of this weekend’s sporting action, and consider a few punts using the best odds available here.

FRIDAY

Bundesliga
Borussia Dortmund/ Hertha Berlin (Setanta Sports 2, 7.30pm)

Cricket - First Test
New Zealand/ England (Sky Sports 1, 9pm) - chickendinner betting preview here

SATURDAY

FA Cup Sixth Round
Manchester Utd/ Portsmouth (Sky Sports 1, 12.45pm)
Barnsley/ Chelsea (BBC1, 5.15pm)

Six Nations
Ireland/ Wales (BBC2, 12.45pm) - chickendinner betting preview here
Scotland/ England (BBC1, 3.15pm) - chickendinner betting preview here

Tennis
ATP Dubai Tennis Championships Final (British Eurosport, 3.30pm)

Six Nations, Sat 8 March, 3.15pm, BBC1, bet here

Over the last few years the sleek gentlemen who run English rugby have made much of the need for “elite performance”, untroubled by the fear that Director of Elite Performance is possibly the most pompous job title since Idi Amin started calling himself Lord of all the Beasts of the Earth and the Fishes of the Sea. If they are being honest, the performance of the England team has been not so much “elite” as “crap at times” and “frustrating.” In Scotland, though, their problems are graver, as they seem to have built themselves a Dr Frankenstein’s Academy to develop players - excellent at churning out creatures with huge necks and impressive musculature, but not so good at successfully carrying out instructions yet. England really should outwit the slow-minded monsters at the weekend, by a margin of more than 12.5 points - England have beaten Scotland in eight out of their last ten meetings, seven of them by more than a 12.5 point gap.

The statistics

* Scotland go into the game on a terrible run of form, having lost all three Six Nations games so far (to France, Wales and Ireland).