[Rugby] Union / League / Super / Sixes Sevens Pro14 / Cups & Tours / Olympics

[aoluain]

The Capetown sevens have just been loaded, so I'm going with New Zealand, Samoa, Argentina, Fiji, Ireland and South Africa in the men's tournament.

In the Women's match ups, I'll go with the favourites, Ireland, New Zealand, Fiji, Canada and France (betting on the Australia Vs Spain match is suspended (unless if course you want to bet on Spain at $101.00)

Yea just looking at the odds on ROLLBIT for the line up's for the first matches now,
ATM its just the first round of matches I can see odds on.

Mens

Samoa v Australia - Samoa are favourite @ 1.81 against 2.24 for Australia, thats very close odds really,
They only won 1 game each in the pool stages, hard to bet on these two.

New Zealand v Canada - yea well we know what way that is going

Argentina v Spain - same as above - Argentina @ 1.04

Fiji v France - Same as above - Fiji @ 1.25

Ireland v USA - Ireland were good last weekend winning 2 games and making it into the knockouts, favourites
tomorrow @ 1.42 - not bad odds.

South Africa v Great Britain - SA favourites @ 1.04

Womens

Ireland v Brazil - Ireland favourites @ 1.10 - should be winning that

New Zealand v Great Britain - has to be NZ @ 1.02

Australia v Spain - Spain are 28.0! [not going to happen]

Fiji v Japan - Like the mens side the monens side are very strong anf favourites @ 1.1

Canada v USA - the odds suggest this will be close, its 1.83 v 2.18 - wont be betting on that

France v South Africa - France @ 1.09 - SA didnt win any of the pool matches last week, Strange
how the mens side are so competitive and the Womens not [so far]

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[aoluain]

Rugby 7's Round 2 - Cape Town

Mens

Argentina take the title beating Australia 45 -12

South Africa and New Zealand only made the QF's.

Some of my predictions didnt happen eventhough they were favourites. In the first
match Samoa lost to Australia and surprisingly the second match was a bit of
a shocker, Canada whipped NZ 7 - 19.

I didn't get to follow up on the rest of the pool matches but suffice to say it was somewhat
different to lat week...with the exception of Argentina who got to the final again.

Womens

All the first games in the pool predictions went according to plan except that Canada
beat USA which was a dodgy one to bet on.

It was an Australia France final with Australia winning, Thats 2 in a row for Australia!

[Timelord2067]

Australia certainly have had mixed fortunes with the Women's soccer team reaching fourth place at the recent World Cup and the Women's Rugby team winning again.

The Australian men's team on the other hand both internationally and in the Pacifica comp have struggled to win their away games. There needs to be something of a "back to basics" change of mentally.

[aoluain]

Australia certainly have had mixed fortunes with the Women's soccer team reaching fourth place at the recent World Cup and the Women's Rugby team winning again.

The Australian men's team on the other hand both internationally and in the Pacifica comp have struggled to win their away games. There needs to be something of a "back to basics" change of mentally.

In the 7's I think Australia could be in a few finals but what I am gathering from this competition
is that almost everyone is capable of beating each other.

The top team New Zealand got beaten in the QF #2 by Ireland who got beaten in last
rounds QF#2 by Fiji who didnt even make it to the knockouts this week.

Similarly South Africa in QF #3 got hammered by Australia 28 - 0 but last week beat
Australia in QF #1 28 - 7 and went on to win the trophy.

Thats just the knockout phase example in the mens side. Then in the pool stages its
really hard to predict a match winner.

The only consistent team over the two rounds is Argentina IMO.

I have to see if my synopsis on the mens game correlates to the womens side.

[aoluain]

European Rugby Champions Cup

Connacht are at home playing Bordeaux Begles. Connacht are favourites @ 1.52 and are probably
worth it at that. They have had some "unlucky" losses in the URC and will be itching to put things
right in this European Cup round.

Glasgow Warriors are at home playing Northampton Saints and are favourite @ 1.33 again they
should win this.

Toulon at home to Exeter Chiefs and are big favourites @ 1.17. They are 2nd in the Top14 ATM
and the Chiefs are mid table in the Gallagher premiership so yea they should win this at home.

Bath at home to visiting Ulster. Bath are favourites @ 1.37 but I think Ulster could come up with
an upset, they are 3.30.

So last weeks matches in the European Rugby Champions Cup turned out to be a disaster
for my bets.....all four above lost.

There has been scathing criticism of Connacht because of their performance and how they
lost to Bordeaux 5 - 4, thats only 1 score for Connacht in the 15th minute.

In the last years final replay Leinster overcame La Rochelle 9-14, luckily I didnt bet on that because
I would have bet on the home side.

Actually not a great weekend for both the French and Irish sides generally.

[Timelord2067]

I've put bets on as many of the Gallagher Cup games this weekend as I can find. I'll post them in a little while.

In Australia, all the news of Rugby Union is the Australian coach who has gone to Japan has admitted he made contact with the Japanese prior to the recent disastrous world cup.

[aoluain]

ouch, thats a bit of controversy alright, Eddie has always since I know about him been
in some form of controversy.

https://www.balls.ie/rugby/eddie-jones-sonny-bill-williams-581884

"I didn't do an interview before the World Cup. I was asked by the recruitment
agency to share my experiences. The first interview I had with Japan was in Japan, and
that was the only one I had.

So after this weekend there are a few tournaments taking a break until mid to late January.

Rugby 7's - next leg of the series is in Perth, Australia 26th Jan

EPRC - Round 3, 12th January

URC - After Round 9 on the 30th December its breaktime until February 16th

Gallagher Premiership - After round 11 they break from the 5th January to the 26th January

Top 14 - After round 12 on 6th January they break until the 27th January

So altogether January will be a lean month in terms of Rugby.

[aoluain]

European Rugby Champions Cup

2 Matches tonight in Round 2 of this competition, I didnt get any bets on but the two French
clubs in action both lost.

Northampton Saints at home beat Toulon 22 - 19
Aviron Bayonnais at home lost to Glasgow Warriors 11-12

Next games tomorrow:

Big test for La Rochelle travelling to play the DHL Stormers, I think the Storkmers are good value
@ 1.64 being the favourites. La Rochelle are batable as per Leinster last week.

Saracens v Connacht - The home side are big favourites @ 1.09 v 8.2 on Connacht, after last weeks
thrashing Connacht will either bounce back with force or Saracens will just be too much for them,
the latter is what I'm thinking so I'm not betting on that.

Two other matches I woould be interested in are Leinster v Sale Sharks, Leinster being favourites @ 1.008
are unbackable but I would like to see how they go.

Ulster v Racing 92 - Interesting one here, Ulster need to bounce back from last week, they are favourites
@ 1.88, it might be a value bet too.

[Timelord2067]

Am finally back online - two nights of storms and the internet is still slow (plus both the forum and bpip seem to be extra slow thanks to cloudfair)


I had wins on Leicester ($3.40), Toulouse, Ulster, Bath, Lyon, Bordeaux ($1.05), Saracens ($1.04) and Glasgow.  (and lost on Toulon, La Rochelle and Munster).


The Christmas bnreak sees cricket, then the Australian Open so free to air stations are saturated with those games, then in February when everyone is going back to work after our summer break, the League finally starts again.

[aoluain]

You are welcome back Timelord.

I was rattling around here on my lonesome over the weekend.

La Rochelle clocked up a second consecutive loss this round against the Stormers....
by 1 point! I thought that might happen.

Ulster did well also to win against Racing92 - they needed that.

you did well on Leicester, they beat Stade Francais 24 -27, nice one!!

[darxiaomi]

Well after we become champion on sevens now we have some news on Pumas.



Good to se Cheika out.

[Timelord2067]

I'm glad to see Australia are not the only team having a shake up of their coaching staff.

I'm guessing it's going to be fairly quiet until into the new year then the sixes in early February?

[aoluain]

I hope Contepomi does well with Argentina, they need someone who can take them a step higher to
compete and beat the top teams like South Africa and New Zealand on a regular basis. He has about
7 or 8 years of coaching under his belt at this stage I think and "Head Coach" is the next step up.

He played for Leinster around the mid 2000's and scored over 1000 points for them, he also coached
for a bit at leinster.

Yea, Australia will be with a new coach too !

[Timelord2067]

Jarome Luai of the NRL 2023 winners the Penrith Panthers has shifted to 17^th (wooden spooners) the Balmain Tigers.

https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-premiership/nrl-2023-penrith-panthers-jarome-luai-signs-with-wests-tigers-why-he-can-turn-around-tigers-justin-horo-criticism-attitude-news-transfers-contracts/news-story/20d141d7ae40cd6f04ae6ebca10c5f84

Former NRL forward Justin Horo believes Jarome Luai could be the perfect recruit to spearhead a Tigers resurgence under rookie coach Benji Marshall.

On Saturday, reports emerged Luai had agreed terms with the Tigers on a five-year, $6 million deal from 2025 and beyond.

However, Luai then responded on social media, explaining he was yet to put “pen to paper” on any contract despite reports circling he’d informed his Panthers teammates he was leaving.

There have been some other players at various teams shifting camp, however, this seems to be the most extreme going from a first place team to 17^th.

[aoluain]

Yea thats an "extreme" move to say the least. Obviously the Tigers management team
believe they can do big things this coming season.

I can totally understand players moving clubs between the top 6 or so teams.


There is a bit of controversy in Ireland here with the South African RG Snyman,
he is leaving Munster and moving to Leinster, he wants to stay in Ireland.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/rugby/arid-41293573.html

[aoluain]

URC

We are back in action tomorrow with Round 9, all the matches are derby's obviously
to save on the travelling just before christmas.

First up
Glasgow warriors v Edinburgh - Glasgow are favourites @ 1.45, gotta go with them.

Followed by
Ulster v Connacht - Ulster are favourites @ 1.24, gotta go with them also, Connacht have
lost their way over the last few matches in both competitions, hard to bet on them really.

[aoluain]

Glasgow Warriors 22 - 10 Edinburgh - as expected

Ulster 20 - 19 Connacht - Just about but as expected, better performance from Connacht.


There are only 2 matches today in the URC, the balance of the matches will be played
on the 26th.

The Italian Derby
Zebre Parma v Benetton - Benetton being favourites are 1.24. IMO thats actually a good price
because I really cant see them losing.

South Africa
Stormers v Bulls - this should be close according to the odds 1.90 v 2.01, I'm going
again with the favourites.

[Timelord2067]

In tonight's games I've got a dollar on Exeter, Gloucester and Bath - slim pickings, but it is a long long week-end.  (Stay safe on the roads and don't drink and drive - crash at a friends place, not in your car)

Thanks to aoluain for keeping the home fires burning while I've been on vacation - I'll be back to work (and the forum proper) just after the new year.

[aoluain]

👍

I havent been following the Gallagher Premiership Rugby over in the UK, just checking
in there and its very close between Gloucester and Northampton 24 each!

With 59 minutes Exeter are way ahead of Leicester so thats ok for you Timelord.

and Bath are ahead of Harlequins...that could end up being close, they are 2 and 3
currently on the table. The odds are closed on this match ATM.

[Timelord2067]

The three bets were between $1.6 and $1.8 so I covered the three bets with two wins.