After a quiet opening weekend of Super Rugby, I had more opportunities to watch games in Round 2 and I am pleased to report I came out ahead of the bookmakers, but only after some serious close shaves.
My weekend hinged largely on 2 games, firstly the Lions against the Reds. In my weekly betting email I had suggested the Reds (+2.5) at half-time against the Lions. They were leading by 3 points as the clock wound down towards the break, but the Lions scored yet another rolling maul try and the conversion which was no certainty went over meaning I had lost that one on the hooter. I had also taken some (+6.5) Reds over the 80 minutes and having looked like kicking on to win the game they ended up conceding a try to the Lions with the score at 20-20 to lose by 7 points and my bet lost by the narrowest of margins.
The good news though is when I saw the weather in Johannesburg on Saturday morning, I went under 48.5 points and with the final score 27-20 that one snuck in. It was a big enough bet to cover my other two losses but I certainly had to sweat as points flowed freely from the start.
On to the Six Nations where I resisted getting involved until just before half-time in the England v Scotland game. England were playing with a massive wind at their backs in the 2nd half and I thought for sure they would kick clear and win comfortably and duly took (-6.5) at 8/10. They then served up a master class of how not to play with a swirling win at their backs and I was very relieved when they finally scored a try under the sticks to win by 7 points with that bet just arriving.
4 bets all decided my under 2 points and fortunately the larger plays arrived to make it a decent weekend.
There has certainly been encouragement for South African fans with the performances of the Stormers and Sharks and we look forward to Week 3 and some more betting opportunities. The Sharks are +6.5 away to the Hurricanes and the Stormers are in Joburg for a derby against the Lions with the line also set at 6.5 points (Stormers favourite) at the time of writing.
Twitter: @BrentGraham.
This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was published on the 13 February 2020.
Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and sends a free weekly e-mail list just CLICK HERE to register