Guinness Premiership Final
London Irish take on the might of the Leicester Tigers in the Guinness Premiership Final on Saturday at Twickenham. As the two leading try-scoring clubs in the Premiership this season with 64 and 62 tries respectively, it's a match that rugby union spread bettors will be salivating over, especially with the likes of Dan Hipkiss and Delon Armitage keen to impress in front of a huge crowd. Buyers of the Tigers' playoff index spread, at 40-42 (50pts for the winner, 25pts for the runner-up), will know that they enter their fifth final in as many years, although sellers of the spread will also be aware that they will be aiming to add to just a single title from those four previous appearances. London Irish, finishing third in the league, are perhaps the surprise package and clear second favourites for success on Saturday with Sporting Index's rugby experts, with an index spread of 33-35pts.
Spread punters who like to bet on the total points outcome of a rugby match should be interested to know the scores in previous Guinness Finals. The average total score in finals since 2004 is a little over 47 points, with a high of 65pts when Leicester lost to Sale Sharks in 2006. Buyers of the total points spread will of course hope for a similarly high scoring game on Saturday. In-play spread bettors with an interest in the points markets may well opt to hold out for an even greater opportunity for profit if they see the possibility of a slow start. Although Bath were eventually defeated 24-10 in their playoff semi-final, Leicester did not allow their opponents a score in the first half while neither Harlequins nor Irish had registered a single point after forty-minutes in their semi at the Stoop.
The supremacy spread is set in favour of the Tigers, which will hardly be surprising to spread punters, but both buyers and sellers of the spread should take note of the points scored by each team in their 22 games of the regular season. Leicester have scored an impressive 582 points to London Irish's 551, or an average of 26.5pts and 25pts respectively, for an average supremacy across the season of 1.5pts to the Tigers. However, buyers of the supremacy spread will take much greater confidence from the 2007 final, the singular Tigers triumph, where 28pts separated the victors from a convincingly defeated Gloucester. The 44pts put on by the Tigers then will also cheer buyers of Leicester's win index spread (25pts awarded for the win plus points score).
Sellers of Leicester's supremacy spread will be gladly aware of the absence of the Midlands side's leading scorer Toby Flood while equally thankful that Irish's full-back Peter Hewett starts, with 146 season points to his name, no less. Buyers of the Tigers' win index or supremacy spread will conversely hope the team can capitalise on Steffon Armitage's dubious record of conceding more defensive penalties (18) than any other player this season.
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