ENGLAND & WORLD CHAMPIONS IN REMATCH
It looks like it will be a testing November for England's Rugby Union side with International friendly's against all the top southern hemisphere teams. Having started with a good, so called, warm-up match against the Pacific Islanders, which saw England emerge as 39 - 13 victors, Martin Johnson's side will be acutely aware that they have far stiffer challenges ahead, with Australia, New Zealand and South Africa all showing good form.
Without a doubt their strongest test and most eagerly anticipated of these games, will be against World Champions South Africa at Twickenham on 22nd November, the outcome of which will surely spark the most interest from the rugby spread betting community.
The new Martin Johnson era started poorly with the tour of New Zealand and it is only now that he is beginning to make his mark on the England setup, returning some pride, passion and belief that the World Cup finalists are still a force to be reckoned with on the world stage.
Whilst the comfortable win over the Pacific Islanders may influence sport spread betting positively towards England's chances against South Africa, the majority of online sports betting will still favour the Springbok to come out on top, with the main question on their lips being the margin of defeat England will incur.
South Africa showed in their match against Wales, the current Northern Hemisphere Grand Slam Champions, that their experienced team have the ability to win even when not at their best, and ruthlessly took advantage of Wales' errors to pull out an unassailable 20-3 lead early in the second half. Despite Wales' strong showing in the game, they were unable to pull back sufficiently, ending the game 20-15, after a succession of penalties during a bruising second half performance.
England on the other hand are in a process of re-building their team with Johnson deciding to use these internationals to offer a number of first caps, and continue this trend as he searches for his best first team line up ahead of the six nations campaign. Johnson himself does not seem to be worried by the perceived lack of experience in his team:
"A lot of people have highlighted the inexperience and youth within the 22 but they all are form players who play regularly in the Guinness Premiership ..."
There is no doubt that the debutants, brought in for the Pacific Islanders match, impressed on their first outing in England colours. Delon Armitage took the man of the match award and Nick Kennedy scored his first international try which will hearten the England management team, but seasoned spread betters will surely not be swayed by their hearts or bright start and will surely favour the South Africans to dominate proceedings.
However if England can manage to achieve what most pundits believe is well out of their reach and win their next international against Australia this Saturday 12th, then spread betting may gravitate back in favour of an England victory or at least a much closer game than has been envisaged to date.
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