Rugby World Cup fever is building and I am getting more and more enquiries from people who are keen to have a bet.

The most popular market is the Outright Winner where South Africa are now trading around the 9/2 mark and I expect plenty of patriotic money to come for them over the coming fortnight.

Another market which I always enjoy is the Top Try Scorer Market, this is always a wide open market and currently we have New Zealand pairings, Rieko Ioane and Sevu Reece priced at 6/1 and 8/1 respectively. The first among the South Africans is Cheslin Kolbe at 12/1 and looking further down the list we have got Nkosi at 16/1 and Mapimpi at 20/1.

Our live Monday night YouTube Show “Use it or Lose it” saw a mixture of sports betters and non-betters chat about who is likely to come out on top.

What makes this market particularly interesting is that you have to analyze the matches that the teams play and who is likely to start in that match. When New Zealand play Namibia for example you would expect that George Bridge would get a run and that is why even though he is not a first choice selection he is only 16/1 as there is every chance he could grab 3 or 4 tries in the game. It is going to be a lot harder for players to score tries when we reach the quarter-final stage and it is strength v strength.

What emerged from our discussions on Monday night was that Makazole Mapimpi could be a value play at 20/1. Mapimpi being the only specialized left winger in the Springbok outfit is bound to get plenty of game time and he is of course a proven finisher.

If you are looking for a slightly more conservative bet, but still a nice price you can get Mapimpi 6/1 to be the top South African try scorer and in this way you don’t have to worry about the flying New Zealand wingers beating you to the prize.

Another market I enjoy is the top point scorer where Owen Farrell is currently 7/2 ahead of South Africa’s Pollard at 4/1. The panel on Monday’s show highlighted Finn Russell as a possible value play at 40/1 with the Scottish 10 currently in great form.

Roll on the Rugby World Cup and remember to join Goodforthegame, our free SuperBru pool.

Twitter: @BrentGraham

This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was published on the 5 September 2019.

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