This Saturday the Tri nations rugby tournament will kick off in Cape Town. Here is a quick preview of how the teams are looking at this stage.
New Zealand:
Coach: Graham Henry
Capitain: Richie McCaw
The Kiwis are rated the number one Rugby team in the world at this stage. Only South Africa has managed to beat The All Blacks over the past 2 years and both those games were on the Boks home soil. Locks Keith Robinson, Ali Williams, Jason Eaton and James Ryan are out with injuries and Chris Jack might miss the first game against South Africa due to the birth of his first child.
South Africa:
Coach: Jake White
Captain: John Smith
The Springboks are seeming extremly positive at the moment. The all South African Super 14 final and their sucsessful test matches against England has definatly lifeted the Springboks spirits. The Boks are ranked 4th in the IRB standings under Australia at the moment. Graham Henry has said that the Springboks will be the All Blacks biggest competition in this years Tri Nations tournament.
Australia:
Coach: John Connolly
Captain: Stirling Mortlock and Phil Waugh
Australia has not had the greatest start one can hope for on a RWC year with a get out of jail free card in the diying minute of the game against a understrength Wales team. The Wallabies have been experimenting with Mat Giteau at scrum half. However for the first game against the boks the Wallabies will use the trieed and tested combo of Gregan and Larkam. One wonders if all the experimenting will amount to anything after all.
What are the Bookies saying?
Paddy Power has the odds at:
New Zealand 4 – 9
South Africa 2 – 1
Australia 10 – 1
Place you Tri Nations bet at Paddy Power
South Africa will win every single game they play this year. Next weekend they will beat the All Black by more that 20 points. In Australia that Boks will beat Australia with at least 40 points and Sout Africa will beat the All blacks in the final game by about 60 points to cap a great tri nations.
South Africa will make sure they win the World Cup this year. They will post 30 points to nothing in the 1st quarter of the world cup final and then canter to a win of about 64 points to 9. It can’t be any other way. For 80 years (1891 to mid 1970’s) South Africa were the leading rugby nation in the world. After a bad 20 years (including the 1995 cup win) history is about to repeat itself.
Michael Peacock your dreaming fool!