South Africa travel to Brisbane take on Australia in the opening match of the 2024 edition of the Rugby Championship on Saturday and the Boks start as the bookmakers firm favourites.
Australia v South Africa, Saturday 10th August, Brisbane, KO 06:30 (South African time)
Referee: Luke Pearce (England)
Assistant referees: Paul Williams (New Zealand) and Hollie Davidson (Scotland)
TMO: Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
Weather Forecast - Brisbane
Rugby Championship 2024 Outright Betting
In terms of the outright betting South Africa are 4/6 favourites to win the Rugby Championship title with New Zealand 29/20, Argentina 20/1 and Australia 28/1 (prices World Sports Betting).
Australia:
Joe Schmidt began his reign as coach of the Wallabies with a two match home series against Wales last month. They won the first contest 25-16 (scoring 3 tries to 1) and followed up with a 36-28 victory (try count 4-4) to seal a series win. In their most recent outing the Wallabies saw off Georgia 40-29.
In the shortened version of Rugby Championship 2023 the Wallabies lost all 3 of their matches, to the Boks 43-12 in Pretoria, to Argentina in Sydney (34-31) and to New Zealand in Melbourne (38-7). After that a they suffered a disastrous RWC23 campaign in Japan where they failed to make it out of the pool stage for the first time which led to the departure of Eddie Jones.
Looking ahead to the rest of this tournament Australia will host the Boks in back to back games in the opening rounds, they will then travel to Argentina for consecutive away fixtures against Los Pumas and they finish up at home and then away to the All Blacks.
South Africa:
The Springboks hosted Ireland twice last month and honours were shared with the series finishing 1-1. They started the first test in Pretoria at around 7.5 point favourites on the bookmakers main handicap line and that proved to be accurate as they came out on top 27-20.
The second test was staged in Durban, Ireland led 16-6 at half time and South Africa failed to score a try but a total of 8 penalties landed by Pollard saw them hit the front 24-19 with just 10 minutes remaining. However 2 drop goals from Ireland, the second of which came right at the death, saw the visitors edge it 25-24.
In their most recent outing a much changed line up saw off a spirited Portugal side 64-21 in Bloemfontein.
In the 2023 Rugby Championship South Africa started with a 43-12 win over the Wallabies at Loftus. They went down 35-20 to the All Blacks in Auckland and finished up with a 22-21 victory over Argentina in Joburg to finish as runners up. Thereafter the Boks went on to claim the RWC 2023 title in France.
After this South Africa will remain in Australia for a Round 2 clash in Perth before returning home to host the All Blacks in Joburg and then Cape Town. In Round 5 they will be in Argentina and their final match will see them host Los Pumas in Nelspruit.
Team News
Australia: 15 Tom Wright, 14 Andrew Kellaway, 13 Len Ikitau, 12 Hunter Paisami, 11 Filipo Daugunu, 10 Noah Lolesio, 9 Jake Gordon, 8 Harry Wilson, 7 Carlo Tizzano, 6 Rob Valetini, 5 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 4 Nick Frost, 3 Allan Alaalatoa (captain), 2 Matt Faessler, 1 Isaac Kailea.
Replacements: 16 Josh Nasser, 17 James Slipper, 18 Zane Nonggorr, 19 Jeremy Williams, 20 Luke Reimer, 21 Tate McDermott, 22 Tom Lynagh, 23 Dylan Pietsch
South Africa: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Elrigh Louw, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 RG Snyman, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Ox Nche.
Replacements: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Ben-Jason Dixon, 20 Marco van Staden, 21 Kwagga Smith, 22 Grant Williams, 23 Handré Pollard
Recent Head to Head
2023 RC Pretoria South Africa 43-12 Australia
2022 RC Sydney Australia 8-24 South Africa
2022 RC Adelaide Australia 25-17 South Africa
2021 RC Brisbane Australia 30-17 South Africa
2021 RC Brisbane Australia 28-26 South Africa
2019 RC Johannesburg South Africa 35-17 Australia
2018 RC Port Elizabeth South Africa 23-12 Australia
2018 RC Brisbane Australia 23-18 South Africa
The Betting -
Update 9 August 09h40
Australia +10.5 points at 9/10
South Africa -9.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
Posted 0940 on 9 August
The money has come for South Africa this week with the -8.5 gradually edging up and there is now -9.5 or -10.5 on offer.
Joe Schmidt is a shrewd coach and although the Aussie team doesn’t have the experience of the Boks I expect them to be competitive and I think the handicap is well placed.
I am mulling over a total points or team points play (will add additional bets to this article) but for now a forum post by Mondo caught my eye.
He fancies the home team to start strong and for the Boks to apply the “slow poison” approach and I like his play of the Aussies to win the race to 10 points.
BET: 2 units Australia win “Race to 10 Points” at 16/10 at Sportingbet*
*If you don’t have a Sportingbet account please use this link to open one
Posted 09 August 22h32
I will be up early to check conditions out and may post a points play but for now another angle on Australia making a fast start.
The Wallabies to lead at the break and the Boks to come storming back to win the game.
BET: 1 unit Australia/South Africa HT/FT at 11/2 at Sportingbet
Posted 10 August 06h25
Late call to go Aussie over 20.5 - conditions looks good
BET: 4 units Australia over 20.5 at 0.97/1 at Boyles
Keep an eye on this article for more bets leading up to the match and the forum where punters post their bets and information.
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Join @BrentGraham and the panel live at 9pm on Thursday night for “The Handicap”. Subscribe to the channel and set a reminder here.
More tips, news and views are available on the weekly rugby thread on our discussion forum. If you are new to our community you can open an account here.
Subscribe to our free weekly betting mailer which will include our best and value bets below.
