Rugby Championship Predictions – 10th August 2019 at 10.45 am, 2019
What a climax to the Rugby Championship we have on our hands here. It’s not been all one-way traffic by New Zealand, strangely. They were denied by South Africa in their second game of this shortened-tournament, which means that the All Blacks may well miss out on the Championship. Can Australia take anything away from the World Champions?
Australia v New Zealand Winner Odds*
New Zealand 1/5
Australia 15/3
Draw 25/1
* (Betting Odds were taken from bet365 on August 6th, 2019 at 5:33 p.m.)
Table of Contents
It hasn’t been the tournament that New Zealand will have wanted in their preparations for the World Cup. They had a rough start out in Argentina, where they battled to a 20-16 win in Buenos Aires, and failed to score in the second half. That was how much pressure they were under. It could have been written off as them being rusty as they hadn’t played since late last year.
But they found themselves under more pressure on home soil when South Africa, who beat them in a season’s Championships, came to Wellington. A dramatic, late converted try by the Boks saw South Africa grab a brilliant point in a 16-16 draw. So in this World Cup year, the Kiwis haven’t been firing on all cylinders yet.
Will All Blacks respond against the Wallabies?
Will they take it out on Australia? The All Blacks trail South Africa in the table now as the Boks earned a bonus point in their opening win over Australia. So all New Zealand can do here is beat Australia and hope that South Africa slip up against Argentina. Not only that, New Zealand would have to win big.
That’s because South Africa have a +14 advantage over the All Blacks in the points difference tie breaker if they were to finish level on points. The teams are just playing each other once in this season’s Rugby Championship because of it being a World Cup year. The reigning Champions need a big performance. Can they deliver against the Wallabies?
Head to Head
New Zealand have won the last three meetings between the two nations, all three of those wins coming by at least 17 points. Australia have taken one win in their last eleven internationals against the All Blacks. That lone win was in Brisbane in 2017 which was a 23-18 success that the Wallabies produced.
Can Australia beat New Zealand?
A title shot looks slim for Australia here. They would need to win and hope that South Africa are beaten. The Wallabies were pummeled in Johannesburg in the opening match of the tournament, taking a 35-17 defeat. 2018 was a really poor year for Australia and they needed a big Rugby Championship to start rebuilding.
They didn’t play badly against the Springboks actually, it was a fairly even game, but being on the wrong end of fine margins hurt them. Australia then produced a 16-10 win over Argentina. Given the brilliant performance from the Pumas against New Zealand, Australia will have been happy with that victory over them.
They have already looked better this year and head coach Michel Cheika looks to be steering them in heading in the right direction. They were good in defence and they had their set-piece plays clicking well against Argentina in a tricky game. The Wallabies did really well up front to take away Argentina’s biggest strength, namely the pack power.
Predictions
It’s home soil for Australia in Perth. Two years ago in Brisbane, they beat the All Blacks, can they do it again? Neither of them look settled or at full strength. The All Blacks have some clear improvement to do and selection issues to get right. They have been below par while Australia are getting towards a better place.
New Zealand needs to wake up and remind everyone that they are still the team to beat. They will meet Australia a week later in Auckland for the second of this year’s Bledisloe Cup Tests and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them dig out a win to take home with them. However an Australia +11 handicap is worth a look at 10/11* (Betting Odds were taken from bet365 on August 6th, 2019 at 5:33 p.m.)
