To most people watching the Argentina v All Blacks Test this past weekend the final All Blacks try which saw them go from 31-0 to 38-0 meant very little, to me it was the biggest moment of the weekend.

My main bet though was New Zealand to score 33 points or more in the game. Things got off to a frustrating start with the All Blacks dominating, but not taking their chances. They led 10-0 at half-time and my bet looked dead and buried in the third quarter. Enter Will Jordan who scored a typically opportunist try to give me hope and it was at this point that I realized that I was watching the game 90 seconds behind because I checked the betting and there appeared to have been a massive over-reaction to the Jordan try.

In fact what had happened is that Jordan scored again almost immediately off the next kickoff and as I caught up with the action I now had every chance of landing the bet with 10 minutes to play.

My chances appeared to have gone when the All Blacks were held up on the line after the hooter, but the TMO intervened and suggesting foul play. I got excited thinking it was on a New Zealand player and I would get a penalty, but in fact it went against the All Blacks who got a yellow card. Fortunately Argentina decided to continue playing and they won another penalty close to the halfway line forcing themselves down to the New Zealand 22.

At this point the All Blacks turned the ball over and my fear was that with the job done they would simply kick it out to end the match. Thankfully they had more ambitious things on their mind and began to run the ball out of their own 22 against tiring Argentinian legs. I was out of my seat and cheering at the TV as they crashed over for a try delivering a bet I had mentally written off.

A try that meant nothing to so many was very important to my weekend and that in a nutshell is the beauty of sports betting.

There was another big moment on the weekend as I was massive on over 45.5 points in the Griquas game only for it to be abandoned when I was on the verge of collecting.

Twitter: @BrentGraham.

This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was published on the 3 December 2020.

Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and sends a free weekly e-mail list just CLICK HERE to register