Our featured international rugby match on Sunday comes from Murrayfield where Scotland take on an Australia side who are looking to make it three wins from three on their end of year tour.
Scotland v Australia, Sunday 24th November, Edinburgh, KO 15:40 (South African time)
Referee: Chris Busby (IRFU)
Assistant Referees: Andrew Brace (IRFU), Eoghan Cross (IRFU)
TMO: Ben Whitehouse (WRU)
Weather Forecast - Edinburgh
Scotland:
Scotland wrap up their year on the back of wins at home to Fiji (57-17) and mosst recently Portugal (59-21) either side of a 32-15 defeat to South Africa. They scored 9 tries against Portugal and 8 in the win over Fiji but they will be disappointed with their effort against the Springboks where they failed to score a try (whilst conceding 4)
Scotland's mid year tour of North and South America delivered wins over Canada (73-12), USA (42-7), Chile (52-11) and Uruguay (31-19).
In the 6 Nations earlier this year Scotland started with a win in Wales (27-26) and a home defeat to France (20-16). After that they won at home to England (30-21) but then went down in Italy (31-29) and Ireland (17-13).
Australia:
After a tough year Australia are enjoying a strong finish and last weekend they inflicted more misery on Wales with a 50-22 win in Cardiff, scoring 8 tries in total including hat tricks for Matt Faessler and Tom Wright and smashing a minus handicap of 6.5 points.
A week earlier Australia went into their clash with England at Twickenham very much the underdogs. They were given around 12.5 points start on the bookmakers main handicap line but they didn't need any of it as a late try from Max Jorgensen sealed a 42-37 win.
The Wallabies Rugby Championship campaign delivered just the 1 win and 5 defeats and they finished with the wooden spoon. They started that tournament with back to back losses away to the Springboks (33-7 and 30-12) before heading to Argentina where they won (20-19) in Round 3 before suffering a 67-27 hiding a week later. Their final 2 matches saw them edged out 31-28 at home to the All Blacks and they lost the return in New Zealand 33-13.
Team News
Scotland: 15 Blair Kinghorn, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Sione Tuipulotu (captain), 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ben White, 8 Matt Fagerson, 7 Rory Darge, 6 Jamie Ritchie, 5 Scott Cummings, 4 Grant Gilchrist, 3 Zander Fagerson, 2 Ewan Ashman, 1 Pierre Schoeman.
Replacements: 16 Dylan Richardson, 17 Rory Sutherland, 18 Will Hurd, 19 Alex Craig, 20 Josh Bayliss, 21 George Horne, 22 Tom Jordan, 23 Kyle Rowe
Australia: 15 Tom Wright, 14 Andrew Kellaway, 13 Joseph-Akuso Suaalii, 12 Len Ikitau, 11 Harry Potter, 10 Noah Lolesio, 9 Jake Gordon, 8 Harry Wilson (captain), 7 Carlo Tizzano, 6 Rob Valetini, 5 Will Skelton, 4 Jeremy Williams, 3 Allan Alaalatoa, 2 Matt Faessler, 1 Angus Bell
Replacements: 16 Brandon Paenga-Amosa, 17 Isaac Kailea, 18 Zane Nonggorr, 19 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 20 Langi Gleeson, 21 Tate McDermott, 22 Ben Donaldson, 23 Max Jorgensen
Recent Head to Head
Oct 22 Edinburgh Scotland 15-16 Australia
Nov 21 Edinburgh Scotland 15-13 Australia
The Betting
Updated 23 November 11h24
Scotland -4.5 points at 9/10
Australia +4.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
Posted 23 November 11h24
This handicap opened Scotland -2.5 and has gradually shifted out to -4.5 where it seems to have settled.
I initially priced Australia -2.5 for this game but on reflection got that wrong and Scotland were always going to start favourites at home.
I think the game is well capped and I am leaning towards a narrow Scotland win.
BET: 2 units Scotland win by 1-12 points inclusive at 18/10 at WSB
The total points line is 54.5 and although both teams play an attacking brand of rugby head to head history suggests this could be low scoring. I am going to give this one further thought and will post any bet in our forum thread.
I am going to take a small interest in the try scorer market. Kyle Rowe is on the bench for Scotland and I am taking the 9/1 he scores Scotlands final try.
BET: 0.5 unit Kyle Rowe to score Scotland final try at 9/1 at Pokerbet
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
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