Friday's action in the Rugby World Cup comes from Pool D, a first ever meeting between Australia and Georgia in Shizuoka.
Australia v Georgia, Friday 11th October, Shizuoka, KO 12:15 (South African time)
Weather Forecast – Shizuoka
Referee: Pascal Gauzere (France)
Assistant referees: Jérôme Garcès (France), Shuhei Kubo (Japan)
TMO: Marius Jonker (South Africa)
Australia
This is the final pool match for the Wallabies who have a won 2 and lost 1 of their matches so far. Should Wales beat Fiji on Wednesday then the Wallabies will be already assured of a quarter final place regardless of the outcome of this game and they will have to wait until the weekend to see whether they will meet England or France in the first of the knockout rounds.
A 45-10 victory over Uruguay at the weekend (19-3 half time) comprised of 7 tries although the margin of victory fell short of where the bookmakers had set the pre-match handicap. The big clash in this pool saw Australia lose 29-25 to Wales where a Wallabies fightback from a 23-8 half time deficit came up just short. Australia also put in a strong second half display to overhaul Fiji 39-21 in their opening fixture with 4 of their 6 tries arriving in the final 24 minutes of the match to land a bonus point win.
The Wallabies price to win the tournament is currently around 20/1; they are 6/4 to reach the semi finals and 7/1 to reach the final.
Georgia
Georgia's hopes of a quarter final place evaporated in their third outing when they were thrashed 45-10 by Fiji. They were given a 7.5 point start by the bookmakers for that game and at half time they were behind 7-3 before Fiji dominated the second 40 minutes.
In earlier results Georgia lost their opening match of the tournament 43-14 to Wales (half time 29-0) before putting themselves on the board with a 33-7 bonus point victory over Uruguay, covering a minus handicap of 15.5 points in the process.
Going back to RWC 2015 Georgia won 2 and lost 2 of their pool matches with the victories coming against the 2 supposed weaker nations they faced, Tonga (17-10) and Namibia (17-16) . They could still finish third in this pool if Fiji lose to Wales earlier in the week but for that to happen they would also need to turn the Wallabies over in this game.
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Line Ups
Australia: 15 Kurtley Beale, 14 Jordan Petaia, 13 James O’Connor, 12 Samu Kerevi, 11 Marika Koroibete, 10 Matt Toomua, 9 Nic White, 8 Isi Naisarani, 7 David Pocock (c), 6 Jack Dempsey, 5 Rory Arnold, 4 Izack Rodda, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Tolu Latu, 1 Scott Sio
Replacements: 16 Jordan Uelese, 17 James Slipper, 18 Taniela Tupou, 19 Adam Coleman, 20 Michael Hooper, 21 Will Genia, 22 Christian Lealiifano, 23 Dane Haylett-Petty
Georgia: 15 Soso Matiashvili, 14 Giorgi Kveseladze, 13 David Kacharava, 12 Merab Sharikadze (c), 11 Alexander Todua, 10 Lasha Khmaladze, 9 Gela Aprasidze, 8 Beka Gorgadze, 7 Mamuka Gorgodze, 6 Beka Saginadze, 5 Konstantine Mikautadze, 4 Giorgi Nemsadze, 3 Beka Gigashvili, 2 Shalva Mamukashvili, 1 Mikheil Nariashvili
Replacements: 16 Jaba Bregvadze, 17 Guram Gogichashvili, 18 Giorgi Melikidze, 19 Otari Giorgadze, 20 Giorgi Tkhilaishvili, 21 Vasil Lobzhanidze, 22 Lasha Malaguradze, 23 Tamaz Mchedlidze
Head to Head
This will be the first meeting between these nations.
Early Betting – Handicap
Australia -25.5 points at 9/10
Georgia +25.5 points at 9/10
Quotes are an average of what was on offer from a selection of bookmakers at the time of writing and are subject to change.
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Betting Angle
The fact that this is a dead rubber for Australia makes this a tough game to call. The handicap varies between -25.5 Australia and +28.5 Georgia but I am undecided at those levels and will instead have an interest in the total points line which is set at 52.5.
I don’t see Australia conceding many points and while they should get amongst the tries they now have a quarter-final to ready themselves for. I think this game could get scrappy in the 2nd half an am going for a small unders play.
Bet: 2 units u52.5 points at 9/10 at WSB
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