The latest Goodforthegame newsletter penned by @BrentGraham with best bets for the weekend 5th to 7th June
Last weekend was, on the face of it, a pretty good one for me as I managed to hit every single rugby play apart from Blues v Crusaders (I sat out Brumbies v Pasifika thank goodness), which unfortunately was one of the newsletter bets at odds of over 2/1.
The Blues, having raced into a 10-0 lead early on, were hugely disappointing thereafter, but thankfully the other highlighted play, namely Lions under 19.5 points away to Leinster, arrived with relative ease.
Overall, I ended up just ahead of the bookies and it felt a little disappointing having called the majority of the games correctly without really capitalising fully.
My great escape of the weekend came in Bulls v Munster where I had backed under 60.5 points in the blog. With around 14 minutes remaining there were already 59 points on the board and I switched the game off assuming the bet was cooked, only to later discover there wasn’t another point scored. Those are the sort of wins you definitely take and move on from quickly.
This weekend we have some outstanding playoff rugby to look forward to, including the Super Rugby qualifying finals (what a bizarre format they still insist on playing), as well as the URC semi-finals.
Click here for the Super Rugby Pacific Betting Blog
Click here for the URC Semifinal Betting Blog
THE HANDICAP
I was joined by The Mossman and The Oracle on Thursday night’s episode of The Handicap and what I initially thought would be a fairly short show ended up turning into a long one as we disappeared down a number of betting strategy rabbit holes.
That sort of discussion is always one of my favourite parts of the show and hopefully there was plenty in there for both serious punters and casual viewers alike.
If you are looking to jump straight to a specific preview, below are the shortcuts:
- Click here to jump to Crusaders v Blues
- Click here to jump to Chiefs v Reds
- Click here to jump to Glasgow Warriors v Bulls
- Click here to jump to Leinster v Stormers
WEEKEND PLAYS
The focus is very much on rugby this week with the emphasis on quality rather than quantity.
Crusaders still worth a punt
I grabbed the early -6.5 Crusaders on Monday and while not quite at the -11.5 I projected the line has edged out all week and is now -9.5.
I can certainly see a scenario where the Crusaders get ahead and the Blues start to focus on next week as unless the Reds beat the Chiefs they will be away to the Hurricanes, despite losing.
Even at -9.5 I fancy the minus.
2 units (1-5) Crusaders -9.5 at 0.93/1 at Betxchange
An 8/1 rugby treble!
I am going to throw my fancies in on the remaining games in a treble
Chiefs v Reds under 58.5 at 0.87/1 - could get tight at times although confidence low after this mornings game
Bulls win at 16/10 - Murrayfield should suit and I am still not convinced by Glasgow
Stormers points u16.5 at 10/11 - keeping faith in the Leinster "D"
1 unit (1-5) at 8.29/1 at WSB – here is the code if you want to follow 7131643
Other Highlights on Good for the Game
The Durban July is getting closer and Chris updated the Durban July betting blog ahead of South Africa’s biggest horse racing event.
The Soccer World Cup is also rapidly approaching and I still cannot quite believe we are moving to a 48-team tournament. Unfortunately, in my opinion, it probably removes a huge amount of excitement from the group stages and there is every chance of “World Cup Fatigue” setting in before the playoffs.
That being said, there will be betting opportunities throughout the tournament and Chris has already started taking a detailed look at the various World Cup groups ahead of the showpiece event.
Here are a couple of selected articles
- Group C Outright Betting Markets (includes Brazil and my tip to go deep, Morocco)
- Group A – featuring Bafana Bafana
Enjoy the weekend everyone, my Friday night should be pretty wild hosting a wine tasting for my daughter and 20 of her closest friends after which she will be putting her new Karaoke mics to use – sorry neighbours
Even if it’s a rough one I will be up for the Crusaders game though.
Cheers
BG