After a successful start to 2021 my betting fortunes went belly up last weekend. Things actually began quite well as I had a bet on Italy to score 8 points or more against England and that bet arrived before half-time. Unfortunately that sparked a greedy move on my part where I then took England to score 45 points or more during the break and while the bet looked like landing in the last 10 minutes, England somehow couldn’t cross the line.

The rot had set in and my next bet was Scotland to beat Wales by 5 points or more and also just to win the game outright. They looked like doing this when they raced to a 17-3 lead, but then lost their grip on the game and worse still yet another red card came to haunt me. The Scots ended up losing by a point and I was chasing my losses and cursing my run of bad luck with red cards.

Sunday came and I fancied France to beat Ireland and I started showing the indecisiveness of a punter on a bad run. The day before I was torn between backing Scotland to score 22 points or more or winning by 5 or more and I chose the wrong option, here I was torn between a straight win on France or backing them to score 22 points or more. I opted for the latter and although France won the game and came within a converted try of landing my bet, I ended up losing. Worse news is my stake was double my normal as I was in full tilt mode and chasing my losses.

Anyway, enough moaning because this week sees the start of Super Rugby, it is the Australian edition and there are two games for us to look forward to. One which has attracted a lot of betting interest in is the Western Force at home to the Brumbies. The line opened +9.5 (currently +7.5) Force and many of the lads on our Goodforthegame Forum are on the Force to beat the handicap and perhaps even beat the Brumbies, as they have made some good additions to their squad in the off-season.

I think I will be following the money and cheering the Force on come Friday morning and here is hoping I can get 2021 back on track.

Twitter: @BrentGraham.

This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was published on the 18 February 2021.

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