I went into this past weekend’s rugby betting feeling optimistic having won on the Currie Cup in midweek.
On Saturday morning I was bullish on Australia beating the 21.5 handicap against New Zealand and when I saw a weather forecast showing rain all day in Auckland I took under 38.5 New Zealand points. Australia made 3 mistakes in the first half and each one of them led to a New Zealand try, but at the break I was still pretty confident they could run New Zealand close. The All Blacks though were just too good (and the weather forecast was wrong) winning going away handing me my first financial beating of the weekend.
The Bulls played against the Lions in Johannesburg that afternoon and I backed Bulls to score 40 points or less. It became clear early on that the Lions just were not up for this and they appeared to throw in the white flag of surrender as the Bulls ran all over them.
Could I get out of trouble in South Africa v Argentina? Sadly not as I went for 5 tries or more in the game and when South Africa scored 2 relatively early in the match I thought this was going to be a winner. In the end though it was a box kick fest and another bet was consigned to the scrap heap.
On Sunday I took a double at half-time of the Sharks game against the Cheetahs. My first leg was the Sharks to win by 4 or more points, something they just about managed.
The second leg was Western Province to score 5 tries or more against the Pumas and I had a decent stake on it, not enough to get me square for the weekend, but certainly back in the game. I promised myself that if the bet could land by the 50th minute I would go for a jog and sure enough Province scored their 5th try in the 48th minute.
It was getting dark outside and I wanted to watch the end of the game but you don’t break promises, even to yourself and 6km (and a long time) later I was watching the recording and wondering how on earth WP threw the win away. I had a smaller WP handicap bet riding which lost and I am pleased I took a jog rather than watch that debacle live.
Twitter: @BrentGraham.
This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was published on the 19 August 2021.
Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and sends a free weekly e-mail list just CLICK HERE to register