Rain costs me a packet!

Iwas confident I would get off to a better start in Super Rugby this past weekend than I had in recent years. tend to get a bit over-excited at the prospect of so many live matches and, quite often, I’m begging the bookies for mercy at the end of the weekend.

The opening matches are always dangerous for punters with no form to go on and I was happy when I saw that the opening round coincided with my daughter’s water polo tournament.

The schedule was wall-to-wall and, basically, I wasn’t going to get to watch any rugby other than the first half of the Sunwolves v Hurricanes. As a general rule, I like to watch a game when I have a spread bet running, so I resigned myself to a quiet weekend on the betting front.

Things went according to plan until Saturday afternoon, when a storm hit Johannesburg.

The girls had to get out of the pool and the announcement came over that there was to be a twohour weather delay. It was just before 3pm and the kickoff of the Cheetahs v Lions game. The dads looked at each other and it didn’t take long before we found ourselves across the road in the local pub.

While the others were content to shout the Lions home, that wasn’t good enough for me, so I pulled out my iPad and began to scour the markets. Bookmakers were expecting a high scoring game between two sides. We had already been treated to some high scoring affairs on the weekend, and when I saw the blue sky in Bloemfontein, I went high on match shirts at 83.

The game started at a frantic pace, but it was soon clear I was in trouble as both teams squandered chances on a surface that was damper than expected.

As the other dads enjoyed their beers, I was drowning my sorrows as the sides reached half time without a try. There was finally some action in the second half, but sadly, not enough to prevent a big loss.

Brent Graham is a sports betting blogger at

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