Downer Men’s World Cup 9s Odds and Preview – Rugby League Betting October 18-19

Hosts likely to dominate first Rugby 9s World Cup

Rugby Betting

Rugby League 9s Betting at Betway

Twelve teams will contest the men’s Rugby League World Cup 9s in Sydney, Australia this month while there are four countries contesting the women’s tournament, which runs alongside.

The men’s competition features traditional rugby league-playing nations Australia, New Zealand and England against emerging Pacific nations Tonga, Fiji, Samoa and the Cook Islands with France and Wales thrown into the mix. Papua New Guinea, Lebanon and the USA also have teams entered in the event.

Nines rugby is a relatively new concept for most fans of the 13-man game and this is the first time a World Cup has been staged.

World Cup 9s Group Draw

Pool A: Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, United States.

Pool B: England, France, Lebanon, Wales.

Pool C: Tonga, Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa.

All the matches will take place over one weekend at the Bankwest Stadium in Parramatta. It does seem odd that pre-tournament favourites Australia and New Zealand have been put in the same four-team pool but two teams will qualify from that grouping with only the winners of the other two groups making it through to the semi-finals.

Power and pace likely to define 9s rugby

With so many wide-open spaces, nines rugby is tailor-made for quick backs and powerful forwards. There are nine-minute halves with five tackles per set and a two-minute half-time break. A try scored under the posts is worth five points and conversions are drop goal attempts, not placed. Any sin bins will last three minutes and any game that goes to extra time will be settled by a golden try. There are plans to stage the tournament every four years but that will depend on the success of this first competition in terms of spectator interest.

All of the Australian Kangaroos play in the NRL, four of them with Melbourne Storm, so it is no surprise that the first host nation are hot favourites (5/6 with Boylesports). New Zealand Kiwis (a best 4/1) have also named a strong and experienced squad and England have named five players who ply their trade Down Under including Ryan Hall and Gareth Widdop.

Warrington’s Australia-born stand-off Blake Austin has been called into the England squad as a replacement for injured Wolves’ team-mate Jack Hughes but this tournament is only a pre-cursor for England, who embark on a tour of New Zealand and Papua New Guinea shortly after when there will be 13-a-side.

England are 6/1 with Betway to win the inaugural World Cup 9s but there doesn’t look an awful lot of value in the outright betting to win the event overall. Instead, take a look at the pool betting, in particular the odds on offer for Pool C which features the south seas islanders en masse.

Tonga to win Pool C
2/1

Betway

Rugby League World Cup 9s Outright Betting

Australia Kangaroos 5/6
New Zealand Kiwis 4/1
England 6/1
Fiji Bati 12/1
Toa Samoa and Tonga 14/1
France Les Chanticleers and Papua New Guinea Kumuls 66/1
Wales Dragons and Cook Islands 100/1
Lebanon Cedars 150/1
USA Hawks 200/1
(Odds correct at 2.15pm October 15)