Wales and Australia are the big favourites in Pool D of the 2019 Rugby World Cup whilst Fiji, Georgia and Uruguay are the nations bidding to cause a surprise. We have a video preview and the latest betting.
To begin with let's take in a preview from Brent Graham and the panel in this recording of the Use It Or Lose It show which is streamed live on our Youtube channel every Monday night at 21:00.
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Wales are trading at around 10/1 in the outright betting markets to clinch a first RWC title. A third place finish back in 1987 is the closest they have come but they arrive in these finals on the back of lifting the Six Nations crown.
Wales completed the grand slam in the Six Nations earlier this year and they have made a habit of edging tight games. Their warm up results weren't quite as impressive. They did beat England in Cardiff a week after losing to the same opposition at Twickenham but they subsequently lost home and away to Ireland.
In RWC 2015 Wales were also paired with Australia. They finished as runners up to the Wallabies but a win over host nation England effectively sealed their spot in the quarter finals where they were edged out by the Springboks.
Australia were crowned World Champions in 1991 and 1999 and 4 years ago the finished as runners up to the All Blacks. They are generally a 14/1 chance to go one better this year and they did win 2 of their 3 matches in the recent Rugby Championship, home games against Argentina (16-10) and the All Blacks (47-26). Australia started that tournament with a 35-17 loss to the Springboks in Johannesburg and more recently they crashed 36-0 to the All Blacks in a Bledisloe Cup decider in Auckland before beating Samoa 34-15 in Sydney.
Fiji have made the quarter finals twice, in 1987 and 2007. In RWC 2015 they also came up against Australia and Wales in the pool stage along with host nation England and Fiji finished fourth in that pool. They were pretty competitive against the Tier 1 nations, albeit in defeat, but their only victory came over Uruguay who they also face again this time around. In the November internationals of 2018 Fiji turned France over in Paris (21-14). Evidence they are not to be taken lightly.
Georgia have made 4 previous appearances and have yet to make it beyond the pool stage. Scotland were the opposition in their recent warm up matches and they lost both those games by some distance (30-9 and 44-10). In RWC 2015 Georgia finished third in their pool. They beat Tonga and Namibia but lost to Argentina and New Zealand.
Uruguay came through qualifying to reach their fourth finals but unless there is a remarkable improvement on their showing in 2015 it is hard to see them being competitive. Four years ago they lost all 4 pool matches, scoring a total of just 30 points and conceding 226 .
Pool D To Finish Top Betting
Note odds are an average of what was available as of 12:00 on Monday 16th September but are subject to change
Wales 8/11
Australia 11/10
Fiji 40/1
Georgia 250/1
Uruguay 500/1
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