Wales clash with Portugal in Rugby World Cup Pool C in Nice on Saturday and the Welsh will be eyeing up another bonus point win.
Wales v Portugal, Saturday 16th September, Nice, KO 17:45 (South African time)
Referee: Karl Dickson (RFU)
Assistant Referees: Luke Pearce (RFU), Andrea Piardi (FIR)
TMO: Marius Jonker (SARU)
Weather Forecast - Nice
Wales:
Wales opened their campaign against Fiji in Bordeaux last Sunday. The main handicap line saw them go off 5.5 point favourites and that cap proved to be accurate as Wales came through with a 32-26 victory. Wales led 18-14 at half time and stretched that lead to 32-14 before Fiji produced a stirring late fightback and they could even have snatched victory were it not for a handling error at the death. Josh Adams, George North, Louis Rees-Zammit and Elliot Dee were the Welsh try scorers against Fiji and Wales, like Australia, have 5 log points against their name and Fiji have 2.
After this Wales will face a crunch game against the Wallabies before they finish up against Georgia.
In RWC 2019 in Japan Wales also had Australia, Fiji and Georgia for company. They won all their pool matches to advance to the quarter finals where they edged out France 20-19 before losing 19-16 to South Africa in the semi's.
In the outright betting Wales are now trading at around 33/1 to win the tournament with Betway. The same firm go 1.65/1 for Wales to top Pool C (Australia are 0.57/1)
Back the Boks risk-free
Claim the offer and place a R25 or more outright bet on South Africa to win the Cup by 28 October and get it risk-free up to R1,000. T&C's apply.
Click here to open your Betway Account – use the Promo Code “GFTG”
Portugal:
Portugal qualified for the RWC finals at the expense of the USA. Their only previous appearance at the finals also came in France in 2007 when they lost to Scotland (56-10), New Zealand (108-13), Italy (31-5) and Romania (14-10).
In their warm up matches Portugal were 46-20 winners at home to the USA before they headed to France where they were beaten 30-17 by an Australian “A” side.
In the RWC outright betting Portugal are 1/10 to finish bottom this pool with Betway.
Team News
Wales: 15 Leigh Halfpenny; 14 Louis Rees Zammit, 13 Mason Grady, 12 Johnny Williams, 11 Rio Dyer; 10 Gareth Anscombe, 9 Tomos Williams; 8 Taulupe Faletau, 7 Tommy Reffell, 6 Dan Lydiate; 5 Dafydd Jenkins, 4 Christ Tshiunza; 3 Dillon Lewis, 2 Dewi Lake (captain), 1 Nicky Smith
Replacements: 16 Ryan Elias, 17 Corey Domachowski, 18 Tomas Francis, 19 Adam Beard, 20 Taine Basham, 21 Gareth Davies, 22 Sam Costelow, 23 Josh Adams
Portugal: 15 Nuno Sousa Guedes, 14 Vincent Pinto, 13 José Lima, 12 Tomás Appleton (c), 11 Rodrigo Marta, 10 Jerónimo Portela, 9 Samuel Marques, 8 Rafael Simões, 7 Nicolas Martins, 6 João Granate, 5 Steevy Cerqueira, 4 José Madeira, 3 Anthony Alves, 2 Mike Tadjer, 1 Francisco Fernandes
Replacements: 16 David Costa, 17 Lionel Campergue, 18 Diogo Hasse Ferreira, 19 Martim Belo, 20 David Wallis, 21 Pedro Lucas, 22 Joris Moura, 23 Raffaele Storti
The Betting
23h50 15 September
Wales -29.5 points at 9/10
Portugal +31.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
Wales impressed me last week in holding off Fiji for a crucial win but historically they have been a side that does not put teams away by big margins. I can't see Portugal winning this game but from what I saw of them in matches before the World Cup I reckon they can beat this handicap.
Stay close to our forum thread where I will post any more bets
BET: 4 units Portugal +31.5 at 19/20 at WSB
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Join @BrentGraham and the panel live for “The Handicap” powered by BetXchange. Subscribe to the channel and set a reminder for the next show here.
More tips, news and views are available on the weekly rugby thread on our discussion forum. If you are new to our community you can open an account here.
Subscribe to our free weekly betting mailer which will include our best and value bets below.
