Punters eager for Cape Town Sevens clashes

As the international rugby season closed with the Wales vs South Africa Test last week, I saw an interesting poll on Twitter. The Boks were trailing the Welsh 21-3 and the question was asked: “What will you be doing at 5.30pm?” with the options being, “Watching the Springboks” or “Watching the Blitzboks” with the Blitzboks playing in the Dubai Sevens final against New Zealand.

The votes were going overwhelmingly in the Blitzboks favour, a sign of how well they are playing and also how gatvol South Africans are with the management and performance of the 15 man team.

The interest in Sevens rugby goes deeper than just your average fan though and I have been amazed at the growth in the betting over the years.

We have a number of punters in the Goodforthegame.co.za forum that will not miss a game and chief among those is who I consider to be the doyen of Sevens betting: Sean Nicholas or as he is known on the forum, RuggaBugga.

RuggaBugga was on fine form in Dubai and cannot wait for the Cape Town Sevens to start.

Nicholas, who was known to travel to Port Elizabeth back in the day so that he could watch the teams warm up and take an early view on team selections, prefers to punt from his couch these days and will be firmly entrenched in it from Saturday with his online bookmaker accounts on hand.

I asked just what it is about rugby Sevens betting that gets punters so excited and he said: “Teams are getting a lot closer to each other with the weak teams improving and an upset is always on the cards.

“It also takes just 14 minutes to collect your loot.”

I am heading to Port Elizabeth on holiday this week but will certainly follow the Cape Town tournamant and as this is my final article for 2017, I wish you all the best for the festive season.