Congratulations to the Springboks on being crowned World Champions after a dominant performance against England on Saturday.

Regulars to this column will know that I had been on the English since the start of the Tournament and perhaps influenced by that early bet I could only see one result in the final and that was a fairly comfortable England victory. As it happened the Boks pulled clear to win by 20 points and while I didn’t lose a lot on the game, my potential winnings would have certainly padded the bank balance. While I joined in the Boks celebrations it was done with mixed feelings as I was happy for my country, disappointed not to win money and all the while trying to figure out how I had read the game so wrong?

The Tournament itself was profitable thanks to the early position I took on Total Points and Total Tries where I went unders as I was expecting low scoring games. Those bets arrived comfortably and I also held my own in the matches themselves despite going down in the final. My personal highlight was undoubtedly taking 28/10 England to beat New Zealand in the semi-final.

I must thank my old friend, Oracle Rugby, for steering me in the direction of what turned out to be a perfect hedge bet against England. There was a real battle for Top Points Scorer heading into the final two matches and on Oracle’s advice I backed Handre Pollard to finish top of the pile at 15/10. New Zealand’s flyhalf Richie Mo’unga made a late bid for glory but it was always going to come down to Pollard v Farrell and there was even a chance that Farrell would not kick in the final (he did in the end).

One thing I was certain of was that if South Africa won the Tournament, Pollard would be the Top Points Scorer and there was also a chance that he would finish on top even if England won the final. This bet trotted up with some ease and although the winnings were not enough to cover my England losses it certainly softened the blow.

What a great Tournament it was and I am certainly going to miss top class International Rugby and plan to take something of a betting back seat until Super Rugby and Six Nations early next year.

Twitter: @BrentGraham

This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was published on the 7 November 2019.

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