Rugby Championship 2019 – Saturday, July 20th, 2019 at 4.05 pm
The Rugby Championship swings into action with a cracker of a match in Johannesburg. This is likely to be a decider to settle who is going to finish second. In last year’s Championship, it was Springboks who had the better of things after taking runners up spot behind New Zealand. Will they make the most of home soil advantage? Read our South Africa v Australia predictions for more.
South Africa v Australia Odds*
South Africa 4/11
Australia 2/1
Draw 25/1
* (betting odds taken from Unibet on July 13th, 2019 at 12:57 pm)
Can South Africa beat Australia?
South Africa fell short in their first meeting with Australia last year in the Rugby Championship, slipping to a 23-18 defeat in Brisbane. But the Boks would go out and get their revenge. They posted a 23-12 success over the Wallabies back in Port Elizabeth and they held out despite a sin bin deep into the second half for Aphiwe Dyantyi. Winger Dyantyi had opened the scoring in the very first minute of the match with a try.
It was a mixed year from South Africa in 2018 as they posted a W7 L7 record. They did do enough to finish second in last season’s Championship and they are favoured over Australia to do that again. This is a shortened version of the Championship with teams playing each other just once (because of this being a World Cup year). So home advantage in this tussle could prove to be vital for the Springboks. They were the only side to beat New Zealand in last season’ Rugby Championship. In their Autumn internationals in Europe last year, they narrowly lost to England before taking narrow successes over France and Scotland. They closed out with defeat against Wales.
Head to head
South Africa have lost just one of their last five games played against Australia (W2 D2 L1). So they do have a little bit of form going there. If you look specifically at their home record against the Wallabies in the last five years, it is W3 D1 L0. Again, home soil advantage could be a huge factor.
Can Australia land a telling win in World Cup year?
Australia had a 2018 forget. They won just four of their thirteen games played in the calendar year and have some issues to iron out in this World Cup year. Australia took two wins in last season’s Rugby Championship, a 23-18 home success in Brisbane over South Africa and then an away win in Argentina. However, they lost on home soil against the Pumas, which was a crushing low point for them. That was their first loss against the Argentineans since 1983.
In patches, they offered their running game, but all too often they couldn’t find a telling touch to put more wins on the board. Just to put things into context, 2018 was their worst calendar year for results since 1958. When they toured Europe last year their only success was a win over Italy, the Wallabies suffering defeats against Wales and England. Their defence looks wholeheartedly fragile and head coach Michael Cheika will be a man under pressure now in 2019. There have been no June internationals for warm-up action. It’s straight down to business.
Predictions
South Africa look the sound bet here, especially with home soil where they have pretty strong form going against Australia. That having been said, just one of the last seven meetings between these two have produced a winner by a margin of more than eight points. So an Australia +7 handicap at 10/11 odds isn’t bad value* (betting odds taken from Unibet on July 13th, 2019 at 12:57 pm)
