Nations Championship Round 2, Under-20 World Championship (7–12 July)

The opening week of the Nations Championship delivered some exceptional rugby. From a betting perspective, I came out slightly ahead, with France covering the handicap and England getting over their team points line, although it was harder work than I had anticipated.

 The only disappointing aspect of the weekend for me was watching New Zealand retain possession for the final two minutes against France with no ambition other than to close out the game. I have no issue with the AB's as it is completely within the laws, but I do think the coaches or lawmakers need to find a way to combat it. Imagine a Rugby World Cup final where a team simply decides to hold the ball for five or six minutes to run down the clock?

 Anyway, on to Round 2 of the Nations Championship. Below are my projected handicaps for the weekend:

New Zealand -28.5 v Italy 
Australia +7.5 v France 
Japan +20.5 v Ireland 
Fiji +17.5 v England
South Africa -21.5 v Scotand 
Argentina -8.5 v Wales 

Let me know your thoughts 

 Watching the Argentina v Scotland match last night (has anyone heard from Oracle this morning?), it struck me that the cross-conference format creates an interesting dynamic. Once Scotland had built a commanding lead, they had very little incentive to stop Argentina from claiming both a losing bonus point and a four-try bonus point, as those points have no bearing on Scotland's conference standings.

Five of the six matches comfortably went over the total points line, and I wonder whether that is partly because teams are more willing to keep attacking in high-scoring contests when conceding bonus points has no impact on the their conference.

The final pool matches of the World Rugby Under-20 Championship take place on Tuesday, so there is another exciting week of rugby ahead for punters.

I will be away for the next coupe of weeks but if anything will have more time to focus on the rugby 

That NZ over 34.5 was my only losing rugby bet of a strong rugby punting weekend, so I was also fuming at the 3 minutes of running down the clock. 

think you have a good point their Brent about points.

also now when you look at round 2/3 you see how tough NH sides have it - a huge amount of air miles to travel over rounds 1-3 whereas SH teams are just hopping around Europe in rounds 4-6. Wonder if Ireland and England rest some key players vs Fiji and Japan this weekend.