ODDS

TBrent Graham

he Springboks failed to take advantage of a couple of late Australian injuries in Brisbane last week and the bookmakers’ handicap proved to be spot on.

Australia had been priced up at -5.5 point favourites earlier in the week and there was solid betting support for the Boks initially. But in the 24 hours before kick-off, the Wallabies were hit by the withdrawals of Folau and Pocock, their two best players. This swung the betting momentum back to the Springboks with the home team eventually starting just two point favourites.

But the South Africans ended up losing the match by five points and those who followed our advice in taking Australia -5.5 did at least get their money back if they bet with GGGaming and watched our weekly YouTube Show.

This week South Africa travel to New Zealand and the Boks are being given a 23 point start by the bookmakers. World Sport Betting are +23.5 SA at the time of writing and you can get 10/1 for an upset Springbok victory. New Zealand have a couple of key injuries too, but such is their dominance of the Rugby Championship and the depth within their ranks that this has had little impact on betting.

The question for punters is more whether or not the Boks can keep things respectable rather than if they can win the game. The statistics don’t make pretty reading. They have lost their last six in a row in Wellington and four of those defeats have been by 20 points or more. In their last visit to New Zealand they were hammered 57-0 in Albany and the Twitterati suggest that many Bok fans are fearing a repeat.

I don’t think it will be as bad as that but I do think New Zealand experimented a bit last week against Argentina and still won by 22 points and that the Boks will feel the full force of the All Black might this weekend.

If forced to bet, I would be on New Zealand by 24 or more, but I'm going to look at other markets, like total points.

Brent Graham is a sports betting blogger at

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