The first of four Rugby World Cup matches taking place on Saturday sees Italy start as huge favourites for their Pool A clash with Namibia in Saint-Etienne
Italy v Namibia, Saturday 9th September, Saint-Etienne, KO 13:00 (South African time)
Referee: Andrew Brace (IRFU)
Assistant Referees: Paul Williams (NZR), Chris Busby (IRFU)
TMO: Joy Neville (IRFU)
Weather Forecast - Saint-Etienne
Italy:
Italy's first RWC prep saw them go down 25-13 in Scotland in July. They played three warm up matches last month, losing 33-17 to Ireland in Dublin but they subsequently reeled off wins over Romania (57-7) and Japan (42-21).
Italy lost all five of the Six Nations matches earlier this year with their best performance seeing them run France close in a home fixture (lost 29-24).
Italy have yet to make it beyond the pool stage in the RWC. In 2019 in Japan they were also in the same pool as Namibia whom they beat 47-22 and they also thrashed Canada but a heavy defeat to the Springboks and a cancellation against New Zealand saw them eliminated.
France, New Zealand and Uruguay will also contest Pool A along with these two nations and in the RWC outright betting Italy are trading at around 300/1 to win the tournament with Sportingbet. The same bookmakers prices the Italian's at 17/20 to score over 16.5 tries across the course of their tournament and they are 9/10 to score over 125.5 total points. Risk Free First Bet Up to R2,000 back if you don't win
Namibia:
Namibia's warm up matches delivered a 26-18 defeat to Uruguay and a 28-26 victory over Chile.
Namibia have yet to win an RWC pool stage match from a total of 22 attempts. In 2019 they lost to Italy 47-22, to South Africa 57-3 and New Zealand 71-9 before a realistic opportunity for that first win in a scheduled clash with Canada was cancelled.
As far as the RWC outright betting is concerned Namibia are currently 1000/1 to win the title with Sportingbet. They are 9/10 to score over 6.5 total tries throughout their stay in the tournament and the same price to score over 51.5 points. Risk Free First Bet Up to R2,000 back if you don't win
Team News
Italy: 15 Tommaso Allan, 14 Ange Capuozzo, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 12 Luca Morisi, 11 Monty Ioane, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Stephen Varney, 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Michele Lamaro (c), 6 Sebastian Negri, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Dino Lamb, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Giacomo Nicotera, 1 Danilo Fischetti
Replacements: 16 Epalahame Faiva, 17 Ivan Nemer, 18 Marco Riccioni, 19 David Sisi, 20 Manuel Zuliani, 21 Martin Page-Relo, 22 Paolo Odogwu, 23 Pierre Bruno
Namibia: 15 Divan Rossouw, 14 Gerswin Mouton, 13 Johan Deysel (captain), 12 Danco Burger, 11 JC Greyling, 10 Tiaan Swanepoel, 9 Damian Stevens, 8 Johan Retief, 7 Richard Hardwick, 6 Wian Conradie, 5 Tjiuee Uanivi, 4 Adriaan Ludick, 3 Aranos Coetzee, 2 Torsten van Jaarsveld, 1 Des Sethie
Replacements: 16 Jason Benade, 17 Louis van der Westhuizen, 18 Casper Viviers, 19 Tiaan de Klerk, 20 Prince !Gaoseb, 21 Jacques Theron, 22 Andre van der Berg, 23 Le Roux Malan
The Betting
8 Sep 08h15
Italy -33.5 points at 9/10
Namibia +34.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
I really like this Italy side and money has come for them in the lead up to the tournament with the line moving from -26.5 when I first looked a month ago to current levels of -33.5 and even -34.5.
There was a post in the GFTG Forum from Hanrick Swart that caught my eye though. He reckons this Namibia team can get a couple of tries and have a reliable and long boot in Tiaan Swanepoel. There is Namibia over 1.5 tries at 10/11 but I prefer over 11.5 Namibian points (line edged out slightly since Hanrick caught it at -10.5) as I fancy a penalty or two for Namibia early doors.
If I find anything else I will post in the forum thread
BET: 4 units Namibia over 11.5 points at 9/10 at WSB
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
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