For the second week running, the calendar is full of exciting international rugby match-ups this weekend.
With global rugby becoming more and more competitive in the last two years and the Rugby World Cup less than a year away now, every game at this level matters. Six high level matches will play out between Southern and Northern Hemisphere teams this weekend, which will continue to give a lot of indicators about which nations are building well towards next year’s tournament.
Bookmaker William Hill has the odds for these matches ahead of kick off on Saturday.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: November 10th, 2:00 P.M. (EST)
While a plethora of matches are occurring this weekend, including some Rugby World Cup qualification, here are the six big matches to look out for:
- Ireland vs. Fiji (Saturday, November 12, 9:00 AM EST)
- Italy vs. Australia (Saturday, November 12 9:00 AM EST)
- England vs. Japan (Saturday, November 12, 11:15 AM EST)
- Wales vs. Argentina (Saturday, November 12, 1:30 PM EST)
- France vs. South Africa (Saturday, November 12, 4:00 PM EST)
- Scotland vs. New Zealand (Sunday, November 13, 10:15 AM EST)
Looking at the odds from bookmaker William Hill, we can see that several of these matches are expected to be quite straight forward. As the No. 1 team in the world, Ireland should navigate the challenge of Fiji quite easily with this reflected in the odds at 1.02 to 15.00. Stranger things have happened though, and Fiji played a tidy first half of rugby against Scotland last weekend.
England vs. Japan is also supposed to be one way traffic with the odds at 1.05 to 9.00. This could be a high return punt to make—Japan looked excellent against the All Blacks a fortnight ago and have wins over South Africa and Ireland to their names in the recent past. They’ll throw everything at the English, and this one could well be much closer than the odds indicate.
The two tightest matches at the bookies are Wales vs. Argentina and France vs. South Africa.
Wales were well and truly trounced by the All Blacks last weekend, though they were not without their moments in that match. Argentina on the other hand caused a boil over in upsetting England at home. The visitors are actually ever so slightly ahead in the odds here with William Hill putting Argentina at 1.80 and Wales at 2.05.
Take Wales here with the Welshmen bouncing back strong in front of a home crowd as the expectations are high the Argentinians will fail to back up after a good win as they did earlier this season in the Rugby Championship.
The match of the weekend though should be France vs. South Africa. The visitors went down in a tight one last Saturday to Ireland and will be desperate to avoid consecutive losses to start their tour. France, on the other hand, narrowly avoided an upset against Australia and will be eager to prove they are still worthy of the No. 2 spot in the global rankings. With the odds at 1.53 to 2.60, this one feels like a coin flip and could be worth taking South Africa for the higher return.
