The first of Saturday's Rugby World Cup matches comes from Pool D where Australia open their campaign against Fiji at the Sapporo Dome
Australia v Fiji, Saturday 21st September, Sapporo, KO 06:45 (South African time)
Weather Forecast – N/A Indoor Arena
Referee: Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand)
Assistant Referees: Luke Pearce (England), Andrew Brace (Ireland)
TMO: Rowan Kitt (England)
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.
Assuming Australia avoid a shock here the key decisive match in this pool is likely to the clash with Wales who beat them 9-6 in Cardiff in November 2018.
The Wallabies are trading at around 11/10 to reach the semi finals and 11/2 to reach the final. As far as the betting to top Pool D is concerned they are 11/10 second favourites behind Wales.
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. More recent form comes from the Pacific Nations Cup in July and August where Fiji lost to Japan (34-21) before beating Canada (38-13) and Samoa (10-3). Most recently they beat Tonga 29-19 in a warm up staged in Auckland.
If you fancy Fiji can upset either Australia or Wales and make it through to the knockout rounds they can be backed at around 10/1 to qualify from this pool.
Line Ups
Australia: 15 Kurtley Beale, 14 Reece Hodge, 13 James O'Connor, 12 Samu Kerevi, 11 Marika Koroibete, 10 Christian Lealiifano, 9 Nic White, 8 Isi Naisarani, 7 Michael Hooper (captain), 6 David Pocock, 5 Rory Arnold, 4 Izack Rodda, 3 Allan Alaalatoa, 2 Tolu Latu, 1 Scott Sio
Substitutes: 16 Jordan Uelese, 17 James Slipper, 18 Sekope Kepu, 19 Adam Coleman, 20 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 21 Will Genia, 22 Matt To'omua, 23 Dane Haylett-Petty
Fiji: 15 Kini Murimurivalu, 14 Josua Tuisova, 13 Waisea Nayacalevu, 12 Levani Botia, 11 Semi Radradra, 10 Ben Volavola, 9 Frank Lomani, 8 Viliame Mata, 7 Peceli Yato, 6 Dominiko Waqaniburotu (captain), 5 Leone Nakarawa, 4 Tevita Cavubati, 3 Peni Ravai, 2 Samuel Matavesi, 1 Campese Ma'afu
Substitutes: 16 Tuvere Vugakoto, 17 Eroni Mawi, 18 Manasa Saulo, 19 Tevita Ratuva, 20 Mosese Voka, 21 Nikola Matawalu, 22 Alivereti Veitokani, 23 Vereniki Goneva
Head to Head
The teams have met 21 times with Australia winning 18 to Fiji's 2 and there has been 1 draw although npte the 2 wins for Fiji came back in 1952 and 1954 and that draw was played out in 1961.
The most recent meeting came in Melbourne in June 2017 and Australia won 37-14
When the teams met in Cardiff in World Cup 2015 Australia won 28-13, scoring 3 tries to Fiji's 1 with Pocock scoring 2 of the Wallabies tries.
Betting - Handicap
Australia -15.5 points at 9/10
Fiji +15.5 points at 9/10
Quotes are an average of what was on offer from a selection of bookmakers at the time of writing and are subject to change.
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Betting Angle
There is plenty of talk about this Fiji match being a potential banana peel for Australia, but while I think that Fiji can push them I can’t see an upset here. Australia were very impressive in their home match against New Zealand in the Rugby Championship and I am expecting them to be particularly strong on defence. Fiji will throw everything at them that’s for sure, but I expect Australia to hold firm and fancy the under 18.5 points for Fiji currently available at Sunbet.
BET: 4 Units Fiji Under 18.5 points at 1.84/1 at Sunbet
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