Betting Week in Review 17/10/2022 England Make Rugy World Cup Winning Start
In our betting week in review, it was a winning start for England in the Rugby League World Cup. The 2017 beaten finalists beat third-favourites Samoa 60-6. In the Premier League, Liverpool triumphed in their must-win game against champions Manchester City.
England Beat Samoa in Their World Cup Clash © Pixabay.
England Slaughter Samoa in World Cup Opener
The Rugby League World Cup started this weekend, a year after it was postponed due to the Covid pandemic. The tournament has been moved to England, with the hosts kicking off the contest against highly-fancied Samoa at Newcastle United’s St James’ Park.
It was a perfect afternoon for Shaun Wane’s men as they ran riot, thrashing Samoa 60-6, with Dom Young and Tommy Makinson inspiring the Red and Whites to a dominating win.
Welsby, Young (2), Watkins, Farnworth, Whitehead (2), Makinson, Williams and Burgess all claimed tries with Samoa’s only points to get his name on the scoresheet, defying expectations that this would be a very challenging opener for England.
As discussed in our blog article, punters who backed a winning margin of +50 points would have seen a healthy return as Samoa were third-favourites to win the World Cup.
England was on the scoreboard after six minutes when they were awarded a penalty for obstruction, which Makinson converted to make it 2-0. However, Samoa made it difficult for themselves on the quarter-of-an-hour mark when Captain Milford challenged the referee’s call on a knock-on. However, his appeal was dismissed, meaning Samoa would not be able to challenge the referee for the rest of the game.
A try on 22 minutes by Welsby made it 6-0, before a Makinson conversion made it eight. Two minutes later, Young drives through the Samoan side to score another try, which Makinson coverts again.
At the half-hour mark, England made it 18-0 when Welsby sent the ball to 21-year-old Young, who dived over the line after another mistake by Samoa, but for once, Makinson failed to convert.
Samoa got their first game points with six minutes remaining of the half. Tago intercepted Welsby’s pass and touched down for the try. Crichton converted, making the scoreline at the interval 18-6.
Despite Samoa finishing the first half strongly, the second half was all about England. Watkins scored a try on 49 minutes, Makinson converted, and when Milford was sent to the sin bin on 63 minutes for a late tackle on Thomas, it was one-way traffic.
Farnworth (65), Whitehead (69, 71), Makinson (74), Williams (77), and Burgess (80) all scored tries, and with Makinson converting the majority of them, the final scoreline of 60-6 was rich reward for a dominant English display.
👏 WHAT A PERFORMANCE!
🏴 #EnglandRL pic.twitter.com/CwdWiNPW9K
— England Rugby League (@England_RL) October 15, 2022
In other games in the World Cup at the weekend, favourites Australia had a winning start to their campaign, beating Fiji 42-8. Second-favourites at bet365, New Zealand comfortably won their opener, thrashing Lebanon 34-12. While Ireland and Scotland had contrasting fortunes. The Irish won 48-2 against Jamaica, while Scotland lost their match with Italy 4-28.
England’s next opponent will be France on Saturday. The French start their Rugby League World Cup campaign against Greece tonight (19:30 UK time), priced at 1/25 for the victory. Wales starts their campaign on Wednesday when they face the Cook Islands. The Cook Islands beat Wales 28-24 when the pair last met in the 2013 World Cup.
Premier League – Klopp Makes Statement Against City
In last week’s betting week in review, we highlighted the lack of draws in the Premier League which benefitted punters. Results were much more mixed this weekend, favouring operators.
Draws are usually good news for bookmakers, who will be happy with the stalemates between Leicester v Crystal Palace, Fulham v Bournemouth, Southampton v West Ham and the prominent betting fixture between Manchester United v Newcastle.
In the big game at the weekend between Liverpool and Manchester City went the way of the hosts, who beat the champions 1-0. City had been 89/100 favourites, but Liverpool (141/50) took the three points thanks to a Mohamed Salah goal on 78 minutes.
FT: Liverpool 1-0 Manchester City
WHAT A GAME! 🍿 pic.twitter.com/457MaXNctz
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) October 16, 2022
In other games, Arsenal went four points clear thanks to a narrow 1-0 win against Leeds. Brentford returned to winning ways with a 2-0 home win against Brighton. Wolves beat strugglers Nottingham Forest 1-0, and Tottenham beat Everton 2-0. Chelsea is in fourth after a 2-0 win against Aston Villa.
As Premier League games are taking place this week, we will preview some of the games later in the week in our blog section.
