France take on Uruguay on Thursday night and New Zealand face Namibia on Friday night and we take a look at both Rugby World Cup games from a betting angle.
There is plenty of debate about who is the most impressive team in the opening weekend of World Cup action, but if the betting is to be believed it is South Africa who have shortened to the 28/10 favourites ahead of hosts France at 3/1. New Zealand are out to 4/1, Ireland are stable at 5/1 and you can get 12/1 England, 14/1 Australia and 40/1 and better the balance.
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THURSDAY
FRANCE V URUGUAY – Click here to bet
France were under pressure for long periods of their opening match against New Zealand, but they went into the break with a 9-8 lead. The second-half was one-way traffic though as France came back from conceding an early try to stretch clear and win 27-13.
Prior to the World Cup the French had dismantled Australia 41-17 in a warm-up and they had also seen off Fiji by 17 points.
Uruguay make their first start of the Rugby World Cup campaign and in their warm-up games they beat Namibia 26-18 and Chilli 26-25. Uruguay have never advanced beyond the pool stage in 5 attempts, but they did win a game against Fiji back in the 2019 World Cup.
Handicap: France -52.5
Although a landslide French victory can be expected the handicap looks a tricky one so we go with “Any Forward” to barge his way over in the “Position To Score First Try market”
Suggested Bet: Position To Score First Try Any Forward at 15/10
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FRIDAY
NEW ZEALAND v NAMIBIA – Click here to bet
The bookmakers could not separate New Zealand and France going into the opening game of the Rugby World Cup, but in the end it was the French who came out with a 27-13 victory. New Zealand played some great rugby early in the first-half, but the French pack got on top of them and there must be some concern over the lack of scoring opportunities in the second-half.
That was New Zealand’s second consecutive defeat as they had been beaten as they had been beaten by a record 37-5 by South Africa at Twickenham two weeks before and their other warm-up game was a come from behind 23-20 win over Australia.
Namibia looked good in the early stages of their match against Italy, but in the end they ran out of steam and got beaten by 44 points. Their warm-up games included a 28-26 win over Chile and a 26-18 loss to Uruguay.
New Zealand and Namibia have met twice before in World Cup with the last meeting coming in 2019 when New Zealand won 71-9 and 2015 they won 58-14.
Handicap: New Zealand -69.5
Namibia managed to keep things relatively tight in the first half of their clash with Italy before they let things slide in the second half. They will be hard pushed to keep the All Blacks in range but just maybe able to stay with the first half handicap
Suggested Bet: 1st Half – Handicap Namibia +33.5 points at 8/10
Note: All prices correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
