A friend of mine was out from New Zealand over the holiday period and although now a fully-fledged All Blacks supporter he does follow my social media accounts and we got to talking about rugby and betting.

He mentioned that he was at the Rugby World Cup Final in 2011 when New Zealand just edged the French and that game brought back some memories for me as I had my money firmly on France for months before the Tournament and stood to collect my biggest payday ever had they caused an upset and beaten the hosts.

As we sipped on a couple of cold ones he correctly pointed out that the French were somewhat of a blind spot for me and much like the Blues in Super Rugby, I always get excited about their chances and put a bet on them only to be disappointed and a bit lighter in the wallet region.

Given that background please take the next couple of paragraphs in context as I really fancy France for the 2023 World Cup which they will be hosting. They also have some great youngsters coming through and I think they will shorten in the betting. Putting a big bet down now doesn’t make sense as I will have to wait for 4 years to even get a run for my money, but at the same time I don’t want to miss the price and for this reason I have come up with a strategy that won’t break the bank, but will ensure I have a healthy interest on the French come the Rugby World Cup 2023.

Looking at World Sports Betting’s website France are currently just shy of 10/1 to lift the Cup and my thinking is to put R50 on them every week till the Tournament starts. The beauty of the R50 is that I won’t really feel it at the time of placing the bet, but assuming around a 190 weeks till the start of the Tournament, I would get R9 500 down and if I can get an average price of 8/1 it would mean a potential return of R76 000 should my beloved French finally arrive at the party.

If like me and fancy a bet in an event way into the future then this could well be a fun and inexpensive way of ensuring you have an interest.

Twitter: @BrentGraham

This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was published on the 23 January 2020.

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