The last action in the Rugby World Cup on Sunday sees England start as as firm favourites to make it two wins from two when they clash with Japan in Nice
England v Japan, Sunday 17th September, Nice, KO 21:00 (South African time)
Referee: Nika Amashukeli (GRU)
Assistant Referees: Nic Berry (RA), Andrea Piardi (FIR)
TMO: Joy Neville (IRFU)
Weather Forecast - Nice
England:
England came into their opening pool match against Argentina under some pressure after a poor run of results this year but they gave themselves a huge boost with a27-10 victory.
The bookmakers made it a choice game and it started badly for England with Tom Curry sent to the bin on 3 minutes and the officials made it a red card (Curry now banned for 2 matches). Argentina led 3-0 early on but George Ford scored all of England's points with 6 penalties and 3 drop goals and Los Pumas had to wait until 79 minutes to score the only try of a game which was already beyond them.
That win puts England in control of the pool with this game and matches with Chile and then Samoa to come. England last met Japan in November 2022 at Twickenham and they won 52-13.
England are trading at around 11/1 to win the tournament with BoyleSports and they are 1 / 10 to finish top of Pool D. Lets see why you should open a BoyleSports account:
Japan:
Japan took on RWC debutants Chile in their opening match. The main handicap line settled in the mid 20's with Japan being the favourites and they recorded a 42-12 victory, scoring 6 tries through Fakatava (twice), Naikabula, Leitch, Nakamura and Dearns to land a bonus point.
Japan's best return in RWC finals came in 2019 as hosts. They came through the pool stage with a 100% record most notably beating Ireland and Scotland before losing a quarter final clash with the Springboks 26-3.
After this Japan finish up with games against Samoa and Argentina. They are trading at around 440/1 to win the tournament with BoyleSports and they are 15/1 to qualify for the quarter finals. Click here to open an account at BoyleSports
Team News
England: 15 Freddie Steward, 14 Jonny May, 13 Joe Marchant, 12 Manu Tuilagi, 11 Elliot Daly, 10 George Ford, 9 Alex Mitchell; 1 Joe Marler, 2 Jamie George, 3 Kyle Sinckler, 4 Maro Itoje, 5 Ollie Chessum, 6 Courtney Lawes (c), 7 Ben Earl, 8 Lewis Ludlam.
Replacements: 16 Theo Dan, 17 Ellis Genge, 18 Will Stuart, 19 George Martin, 20 Billy Vunipola, 21 Ben Youngs, 22 Marcus Smith, 23 Ollie Lawrence
Japan: 15 Semisi Masirewa; 14 Kotaro Matsushima, 13 Tomoki Osada, 12 Ryoto Nakamura, 11 Jone Naikabula; 10 Rikiya Matsuda, 9 Yutaka Nagare; 8 Kazuki Himeno (c), 7 Pieter Labuschagne, 6 Michael Leitch; 5 Amato Fakatava, 4 Jack Cornelsen; 3 Jiwon Gu, 2 Shota Horie, 1 Keita Inagaki
Replacements: 16 Atsushi Sakate, 17 Craig Millar, 18 Asaeli Ai Valu, 19 Warner Dearns, 20 Kanji Shimokawa, 21 Naoto Saito, 22 Dylan Riley, 23 Lomano Lemeki
The Betting
09h45 16 September
England -22.5 points at 9/10
Japan +22.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
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The handicap for this match has been stable all week and I have found myself changing from England minus to Japan plus on multiple occasions.
Fortunately we have points lines and other options to compete for our betting Rand and I am going to go for over 50.5 points in this one. England have named a strong team and I would be more than happy if Ford takes the early 3 pointers with the game opening up late on.
I think that Japan can score their share as well and hopefully points flow and I can end Round 2 strongly.
I am going to take advantage of the Betxchange Boost and take 1/1 on the overs (5k max, can’t use in multiples)
Stay close to our forum thread where I will post any more bets
BET: 4 units over 50.5 points at 1/1 at Betxchange
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
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