The second international rugby test between Australia and Wales takes place in Melbourne on Saturday and after their win in Sydney last week the Wallabies are favourites to seal the series.
Australia v Wales, Saturday 13th July, Melbourne, KO 11:45 (South African time)
Referee: Nika Amashukeli (GRU)
Assistant Referees: Matthew Carley (RFU), Paul Williams (NZR)
TMO: Glenn Newman (NZR)
Weather Forecast – Melbourne
Australia:
Joe Schmidt took charge of the Wallabies for the first test in Sydney last week and his team came out on top 25-16. They started in the region of 12.5 point favourites on the bookmakers handicap and le 13-10 at half time, going on to score three tries (Taniela Tupou, Filipo Daugunu and Tom Wright) to one from Wales.
The Wallabies had a disastrous RWC23 campaign in Japan where they failed to make it out of the pool stage for the first time after losing key matches to Fiji 22-15 and Wales 40-6 under Eddie Jones.
After this Australia host Georgia and then head into the Rugby Championship.
Wales:
Defeat in the first test was an eighth straight loss for Wales who were awarded a fist half penalty try and whilst Ben Thomas kicked three penalties they were second best for the bulk of the contest.
Prior to heading to Australia Wales took on South Africa in a one off test at Twickenham two weeks ago. With the match falling outside of the international window both sides were under strength, especially Wales and although there was only 1 point in it at half time they finished well beaten 41-13.
In the Six Nations earlier this year Wales finished bottom of the log. They lost all of their matches; at home to Scotland (27-26), to England at this venue (16-14), to Ireland in Dublin (31-7), at home to France (45-24) and finally at home to Italy (24-21).
In RWC 2023 Wales won all of their pool matches to reach the quarter finals where they lost 29-17 to Argentina.
Team News
Australia: 15 Tom Wright, 14 Andrew Kellaway, 13 Josh Flook, 12 Hunter Paisami, 11 Filipo Daugunu, 10 Noah Lolesio, 9 Jake Gordon, 8 Charlie Cale, 7 Fraser McReight, 6 Rob Valetini, 5 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 4 Jeremy Williams, 3 Taniela Tupou, 2 Matt Faessler, 1 James Slipper (captain).
Replacements: 16 Josh Nasser, 17 Isaac Kailea, 18 Allan Alaalatoa, 19 Angus Blyth, 20 Langi Gleeson, 21 Nic White, 22 Ben Donaldson, 23 Dylan Pietsch
Wales: 15 Cameron Winnett, 14 Liam Williams, 13 Owen Watkin, 12 Mason Grady, 11 Rio Dyer, 10 Ben Thomas, 9 Ellis Bevan, 8 Taine Plumtree, 7 Tommy Reffell, 6 James Botham, 5 Dafydd Jenkins, 4 Christ Tshiunza, 3 Archie Griffin, 2 Dewi Lake (captain), 1 Gareth Thomas.
Replacements: 16 Evan Lloyd, 17 Kemsley Mathias, 18 Harri O’Connor, 19 Cory Hill, 20 Mackenzie Martin, 21 Kieran Hardy, 22 Sam Costelow, 23 Nick Tompkins
The Betting
Australia -9.5 points at 9/10
Wales +10.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
Wales delivered on the plus for me last week but in the end they looked a bit fortunate to hang on. Australia were excellent at times but left room for improvement and this week I am eyeing the minus on the home team.
I also fancy the over 46.5 points line as the surface at Melbourne is usually excellent but with some rain forecast I will park that until matchday* and will fire into the handicap for now.
BET: 5 units Australia -9.5 at 10/11 at WSB
*Any points bets will be posted in the forum
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Subscribe to our free weekly betting mailer which will include our best and value bets below.
