The Springboks delivered an impressive display against the Wallabies in Johannesburg on Saturday to win by 18 points, comfortably beating the 6 points handicap the bookmakers had given them.

As someone who spends a fair amount of time on Social Media, in particular Twitter it has been quite refreshing to see how positive everyone is about that Springbok performance, although it may pay to take a step back and consider that we are playing Australia, a side that is really battling at the moment. 

The big test will of course come against the All Blacks this Saturday in Wellington and a look back to last year’s fixture which the Springboks somehow held on to win shows that we started 23 point underdogs.  This week the handicap is set at New Zealand (-10.5) and there appears to be a fair amount of optimism amongst Boks supporters.  I haven’t decided where my money is going for the game, but will be watching the Total Points Line with interest as I think we are going to get a very tight and defensive match with very few tries.

In the other fixture there has been money for Argentina who opened (+8.5) against Australia and are now (+5.5) and on the evidence of their performance at home to what was admittedly almost a B team All Blacks side, they are certainly going to have their supporters.

A lot of my interest though will be on the Tour de France as I took a massive position against Julian Alaphilippe finishing in the Top 3 a week or so ago.  The Frenchman has defied the odds and heading into today’s Alpine stage will most likely still have the Yellow Jersey on his back.  He doesn’t have a team set to defend it in the mountains though and did show signs of cracking on Sunday and as much as I love the guy, I simply have to hope that he explodes at some point over the next three days.

If you are into your Cycling betting then things don’t get better than what lies ahead on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and I will be previewing each Stage on the Goodforthegame YouTube Channel.

In closing congratulations to Lowry for his Open Championship win at long odds.  I lost interest in the Tournament after my main bet Rory Mcilroy shot a (+8) in Round 1.

Twitter: @BrentGraham

This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was published on the 25 July 2019.

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