Topic: [Rugby] Union / League / Super / Sixes Sevens Pro14 / Cups & Tours / Olympics - page 16. (Read 16286 times)

I've been treated to a weekend of Rugby having seen a number of games on TV starting with the Crusaders vs the NSW Waratahs who blitzed last year's winners. Christchurch gave away many penalties in the first half and went to half time trailing before returning to the field to allow the blues to edge further ahead (the crowd of Canterberrans near me got eerily silent as the game progressed)

As that game finished the Wigan vs Panthers international began and was a tight, low scoring affair. With a disallowed try on full time sealing Wiggans win.

This morning the five minute Rugby sevens women's games are underway in L.A. with the Irish lasses going down to their French opponents. South Africa is likewise blitzing their Fijian opponents.

Edit

New Zealand (W) just pounded Brazil 40 - 0

Later still - The Roosters are beating The Broncos 14 - 10 with 15 minutes remaining in the LV game (earlier, The Seaeagles beat the Rabbitohs 36 - 24)

The Reds were just about to kick off as the above games was in half time.

First two foreign matched in the NRL

Sea Eagles v Rabbitohs - Rabbitohs are favourites @ 1.78 v 2.15 for the Sea Eagles, thats all well and
good but the Rabbitohs were disappointing last season, ending up in 9th spot outside the finals cutoff
and the Sea Eagles not far behind in 12th. I'm not betting on that match.

Roosters v Broncos - Broncos are deserved favourites based on their performance last year 1.61 v 2.48.
I am just fearing the same sort of results as last season first few matches where the obvious favourites
lost matches they should have been winning. Like the Panthers losing their first match to the Broncos,
That was my first bet of the season. OK the Panthers went on the win the final but the Broncos were a
completely different team in 2023 from 2022.

Might be able to catch an overseas rugby game Saturday evening before the two NRL games that are being played in Las Vegas Sunday Oz time . (The remaining games of round one start on Thursday which at a guess is to give the four teams time to return to Australia for their round two obligations).

Oh yea, head injuries are a massive topic and one world rugby should be worried about.
Those gum shields are very interesting but there is very little talk of it lets say throughout
the six nations so far.

No six nations this coming weekend.

URC
Round 11 of 18 is on this weekend, this race should be on now to secure a spot on
the top 8 to go to the quarter finals particularly my home team Connacht.

So Connacht at home play Scarlets, I'm surprised to see them massive favourites at 1.05.

A really interesting match is Benetton at home v Glasgow Warriors but they are not favourites,
priced at 2.21.

I've been hearing talk surrounding the super mouthguards that various female players have been trailing (the articles were concerning the World Rugby governing body being sued by former players over head injuries which we were discussing a couple of weeks ago.

Hopefully I can catch some games this weekend.

Rugby 7's - Vancouver

Argentina have put together 3 Gold medals in a row by winning the final in Canada and beating New Zealand.

Ireland to my surprise are sitting in second spot but the same points as Fiji.

For me the team of the weekend was France, they picked up their 1st medal and sit in 7th spot. They won 5
out of their 6 matches and its the first tournament where Antoine Dupont. He was world player of the year
in Rugby 15's in 2021 and has made the Dream Team at No.9 in 2022 and 2023.
He has taken a break from the 15's game this year to concentrate on 7's and in particular the Olympics.
He has made the Rugby 7's dream team this weekend also!!
I think simply because he is in the team now France will become a team to watch.

Next round in Los Angeles this week end March 1st to 3rd.

Top 3 teams on the womens side are:

Australia
New Zealand
France

Between them they seem to be dominating the medals so far.

Ok I'll start getting into the NRL next week!

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Six Nations

Todays match between France v Italy started off as ominous for Italy, France scoring
a try in the 7th minute, the game was chaotic really but just before half time France picked
up a Yellow card which was upgraded to a Red.

Italy were much improved with the extra man in the second half and France gave away
way too many penalties. The game ended up in a draw 13 - 13. Italy had a penalty kick woth the
clock in the Red but with about 13 seconds to go on the countdown kick clock the ball fell
off the kicking tee so Garbisi had to do a scramble kick but hot the post - very dramatic end.

I wonder if anyone bet on a draw, that would have had odds of around 20.0

Around the 45th minute the Cowboys started pouring on the converted points to beat the Raiders 36 - 26.

Then, Parramatta overcame the Titans to win 26 - 16 in the last of the preseason games.

On the 3rd of March, the first two games of the regular NRL 2024 get underway in Las Vegas - be sure to set your alarms.

Absolutely, they are unbeaten in their Vancouver matches and will face the USA in their
semi final today. Their odds are 1.19. The other semi final is New Zealand v France.

Australia have had a poor outing and will play later on in a 9th place play off. Ireland will
be playing for a 5th place play off.

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Six Nations

Yesterdays matches went as planned as regards the odds, the favourites Ireland and Scotland
won.

Wales losing to Ireland was always on the cards, they look like they are developing a new squad
with a lot of young players, so they are building.

England losing to Scotland wasnt as predictable, ok they were underdogs but they have
the capability of winning without a great performance.

Today is France v Italy - Italy will be looking to put some scores on the board at least but
its really an uphill battle.

Argentina are definitely holding their own against some of the other powerhouse teams on the international circuit.

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In the NRL preseason challenge, signs of things to come are emerging with the first game of the week between the Roosters and  and Rabbitohs being painful with the Roosters winning 46 - 10.

In the other games Sharks - Bulls dogs 12 - 6
Storm - Knights 28 - 10
Warriors - Dolphins 34 - 22 (a reasonable score by the Dolphins, just not enough)
Sea Eagles - Broncos 14 - 40
Dragons - Tigers 34 - 18

Games left to play Raiders - Townsville
Titans - Parramatta (who fumbled badly last weekend in a game they should have won convincingly)

Rugby 7's

Round 4 in the series started yesterday in Vancouver, Canada. Canada^men themselves have
had a tough draw in their first two games after being drawn against Argentina and Fiji which
they lost. Their 3rd pool game is against Spain.

Ireland^men havent faired well in their first two either, losing to Great Britain and
New Zealand, they play South Africa next who themselves are 1 from 2.

The stand out teams so far are Argentins....AGAIN, France and Great Britain

Yea in the Six Nations the odds on Ireland and France are not great to say the least, Ireland @ 1.02
and France @ 1.008 and which are about right. I cant see either Wales beating Ireland and Italy
beating France.

The interesting game of the weekend is Scotland v England. Scotland have shown some Jekyll and
Hyde Rugby in their last two matches and are favourites for Saturday. England are definitely
beatable but I worry for Scotland in this match TBH.

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There are other tournaments on this weekend in Europe

Round 16 of the Top14 in France

Round 13 of the English Premiership starts today with Leicester v Gloucester and Bristol v Northampton

Its hard to know who to back based on key players playing in the Six Nations this weekend.

There was a one off State of Origin about fifteen years ago, but no.  Ordinarily there's no overseas games (other than in Auckland for the Warriors)

It's going to be a rather full weekend of games burgeoning across many countries.  Week two of two pre-season NRL kicks off this weekend as does the Pacifca Rugby Union matches Aust/NZ/other Pacific Island nations.  I heard the other day on the ABC radio that there are high hopes for the newest women's teams to enter their Rugby (union) competition.  I just hope it isn't a series of throw together teams like in NRL with Male-centric team names for the women clinging to the men's coat-tails...

Around the groups we have NRL pre-season week 2:

As mentioned previously, I'm going with the favoured teams:  Souths, Cronulla, Melbourne, Auckland, Manly (Brisbane should give them a run for their money) Townsville, Parramatta.

Penrith are still ahead on odds to beat Wigan in their encounter on Sunday.

Week one of the Regular season:

Souths, Brisbane, Newcastle, Warriors, Penrith, Paramatta, Gold Coast, and Townsville over Redcliffe (which was never a suburb of Brisbane inspite what the promos might lead you to believe).

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Super Rugby Pacific

The Chiefs are tipped to win against the Crusaders, however, I feel that game will go the other way.

The Brumbies will have an easy time against the Rebels.  Likewise, the Hurricanes will blow away the Western Force. 

The Blues and Highlanders are tipped to win against Fijian Drua  and Moana Pasifika, but those games might be closer than people would otherwise imagine.

Similarly, the Reds are tipped to win against the Waratahs, but the venue might be the tipping point.

Over in the latest week of Six Nations Ireland and France are unbackable against Wales and Italy while Scotland are hoping to send England home empty handed.

I cant remember but is there an NRL match played in a different country every season?

Something similar happens in American Football College League, they play the first match
of the season in most cases Ireland!

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All the favourites won yesterday in the URC which was brilliant for the "favourites bet".

Only 1 match today, Ospreys v Ulster. I'm not betting on this, I think its too close, they
are 10 and 8 respectively on the table.

Rabbitohs retain Charity Shield with second-half blitz

Author Martin Lenehan NRL Senior Journalist
Timestamp Sat 17 Feb 2024, 10:02 PM

Martin Lenehan

https://www.nrl.com/news/2024/02/17/rabbitohs-retain-charity-shield-with-second-half-blitz/


There were four games yesterday and then three today being played in regional centres as part of the two week preseason series.

In two weeks a one of game will be played in Las Vegas as game one of week one.

Damn I havent tuned into the NRL season start yet at all.

In the URL the two favourites from yesterday won, Munster and Edinburgh.

In todays matches we are looking at the favourites again.

Lions v Bulls - Bulls are favourite at 1.5

Leinster v Benetton - 1st and 2nd on the table but Leinster at 1.07, unbackable unless they
go behind in the first half....

Sharks v Stormers - Stormers are 1.55 and I expect them to win.

Cardiff v Connacht - Connacht are favourites at 1.56 though I'm not sure. Connacht
rely heavily on their 2 internationals Aki and Bealham and they are in the Irish camp ATM.

Glasgow Warriors v Dragons - Warriors for this one @ 1.05, same as Leinster, either
throw them into a favourites parlay or hope to get better odds during the match.

Tonight's early game saw the Indigenous women's team best their Maori counterparts 26 - 4

With close to 60 minutes of game time already played, the men's team are leading 16 - 8. Given the countless years of game play experience the men have knotched up, it's no surprise their game is a much closer scoring one.

NRL 2024

The Bulldogs (third last last year) mauled the Storm 24-12 last night in the opening game of the two week pre-season challenge.

I'll take those tips for the weekend's games.

So as expected in the Six Nations on Sunday Ireland beat Italy 36-0. There were moments
of brilliance and also moments of error riddled play but for Ireland with a lot of first choice
players resting they held an improving Italian side scoreless. Impressive enough.

No six nations this weekend coming but club Rugby starts up again with the URC on Friday

Scarlets play Munster - No odds yet but I would back Munster eventhough they have
not been up to their usual standard this season in the URC.

Zebre v Edinburgh - No odds yet - Edinburgh should be winning this one.

Union Rucks

I know what you mean about the flow of play slowing down at ruck time but every attacking
team wants "quick ball" from the ruck to keep the play moving quickly but every defending
team wants to steal the ball either by counter rucking or stealing the ball as its being
presented by the player who has gone to ground and often teams will deliberately try to
slow the game at ruck time.

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The Scotland v France match was a great one, Scotland were close again this week to
causing an upset but in the 3rd quarter France were able to capitalise on their strength
and Scotlands flagging defense

England v Wales - Its a pity Wales were not at home, they were close again this week, I felt they
ran out of steam with all the defending they had to do.

Ireland v Italy next.