The first of three Rugby World Cup matches taking place on Saturday offers Australia a golden opportunity to return to winning ways when they take on Uruguay in Oita.
Australia v Uruguay, Saturday 5th October, Oita, KO 07:15 (South African time)
Weather Forecast – Oita
Referee: Mathieu Raynal
Assistant referees: Jerome Garces, Karl Dickson
TMO: Ben Skeen
Australia
Pool D is now at the mercy of Wales who made it 2 wins from 2 matches thanks to a hard earned 29-25 victory over the Wallabies in a cracking match last Sunday. Wales started as narrow favourites to win the game and betting market confidence seemed to be justified as they took control with a 23-8 half time lead. The Wallabies hit back to get within a point of their opponents only for Wales to stretch that lead to 4 with a 71st minute penalty. In a frantic finish Australia were unable to find what would have been a match winning try.
The Wallabies are still very well placed to progress to the quarter finals. They beat Fiji 39-21 in their opening match of the tournament, coming back from 21-12 down early in the second half with 4 of their 6 tries arriving in the final 24 minutes of the match to land a bonus point. They are 3 points behind Wales with this game and next week's clash with Georgia to come.
If the Wallabies do finish as runners up to Wales they will face the winner of Pool C (quite possible England). The Wallabies price to win the tournament has drifted from what is was pre-tournament and they can currently be backed at around 18/1.
Uruguay
Uruguay started their campaign with a huge surprise as they turned Fiji over 30-27. They were given almost 30 points start by the bookmakers for that game and the result was hailed as the finest in their history but last time out they came unstuck against Georgia, going down 33-7. Uruguay were competitive in the first half against Georgia and only trailed 12-7 at the break but the second 40 minutes was tough going.
In RWC 2015 Uruguay lost all their pool matches, scoring a total of just 30 points and conceding 226 so they have already bettered that showing. They now have this game and next week's clash with Wales to test themselves against two of the stronger nations in the tournament.
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Line Ups
Australia: 15 Kurtley Beale, 14 Dane Haylett-Petty, 13 Tevita Kuridrani, 12 Matt Toomua, 11 Jordan Petaia, 10 Christian Lealiifano, 9 Nic White, 8 Jack Dempsey, 7 Michael Hooper (c), 6 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 5 Adam Coleman, 4 Rob Simmons, 3 Allan Alaalatoa, 2 Folau Fainga’a, 1 James Slipper
Replacements: 16 Jordan Uelese, 17 Sekope Kepu, 18 Taniela Tupou, 19 Rory Arnold, 20 David Pocock, 21 Will Genia, 22 James O’Connor, 23 Adam Ashley-Cooper
Uruguay: 15 Rodrigo Silva, 14 Federico Favaro, 13 Tomas Inciarte, 12 Andres Vilaseca (c), 11 Nicolas Freitas, 10 Felipe Berchesi, 9 Agustin Ormaechea, 8 Manuel Diana, 7 Juan Diego Ormaechea, 6 Manuel Ardao, 5 Manuel Leindekar, 4 Franco Lamanna, 3 Diego Arbelo, 2 German Kessler, 1 Juan Echeverria
Replacements: 16 Guillermo Pujadas, 17 Joaquin Jaunsolo, 18 Juan Pedro Rombys, 19 Ignacio Dotti, 20 Juan Manuel Gaminara, 21 Santiago Arata, 22 Felipe Etcheverry, 23 Agustin Della Corte
Head to Head
The only previous meeting between the teams came in RWC 2015 in Birmingham and the Wallabies won 65-3, scoring 11 tries.
Betting – Handicap
Australia -51.5 points at 9/10
Uruguay +51.5 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
Australia v Uruguay
This game is an afternoon kick-off and conditions are expected to be decent. There has been plenty of money for Australia on the handicap with quotes in the early 40’s quickly snapped up and we now sit at the point where it hovers around the 51 point region.
The Wallabies certainly look one of the more dangerous sides with ball in hand and as impressive as Uruguay were in their win against Fiji, I think they will be run off their feet here and will be taking Australia to beat the handicap. This bet certainly comes with a degree of caution as to date the big handicaps have just not been landing in this Rugby World Cup, surely we are due one though?
BET: 3 Units Australia (-51.5) at WSB or Sunbet
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