This weekend marks the beginning of the Rugby League World Cup 2021, occurring a year later than intended due to Covid-19 related interruptions in the international schedule. With the tournament taking place from the 16 of October until the 13th of November, the next one month will see the best 16 rugby league teams in the world go head to head to crown a champion.
Australia have traditionally dominated rugby league, winning the World Cup a record 11 times. Can home favourites England claim their first World Cup title as a solo nation or will New Zealand upset their big brother yet again? We preview all of the outright odds ahead of this tournament
※ Current Odds Date & Time: October 14th, 7:00 P.M. (EST)
Unsurprisingly, Australia are the overwhelming favourites to win their 12th crown in rugby league. Bookmaker William Hill has them at 1.44 in the outright odds, well ahead of second placed New Zealand who have odds of 4.33 to win the tournament.
Australia haven’t played an international rugby league match since 2019 and are currently ranked 4th in the world. However, several factors negate these red flags—Covid-19, plus the fact that Australia have 15 of the 16 teams in the NRL, the world’s premier rugby league competition. Many of the Penrith Panthers’ players, who recently dominated the NRL to win their second consecutive Premiership, will feature for the Kangaroos.
One such star is Nathan Cleary, who has been in hot form guiding the Panthers this season and will contest the No. 7 jersey for Australia at this World Cup.
Despite New Zealand’s only rugby league team in the NRL, the Warriors, doing poorly and failing to qualify for the top eight this year, New Zealand are still expected to be competitive at the World Cup. Several of their key players play for Australian NRL teams, such as Joseph Tapine who starred for the Canberra Raiders this year and topped the NRL in post-contact meters.
Add to this the fact that New Zealand famously upset Australia in the final of the 2008 Rugby League World Cup and Australia’s path to victory is by no means straightforward in this tournament. The two teams are seeded to meet in the semi-finals.
New Zealand and Australia being seeded to meet in the semi-finals this year opens up a path way to the final for either England, Samoa or Tonga.
Samoa have benefited from a surge of players switching allegiance and returning home to play for the island nation putting them third in the odds to win at 10.00. Tonga has had a similar influx of NRL players and is at 13.00 while England play at home and have a good squad of Super League players that puts them at 17.00 in the odds.
Expect England to get through some tough matches and defy the odds to make the final, though they should ultimately lose out to a strong Australian team.
