Time to kick off this thread with a first bet.
Rugby 7s:
Watched all the pool action yesterday, and its easy to see why Fiji have shortened. Granted they didn't have a very tough group v Scotland, Canada and Nuie, but they still strolled through and by the looks of things they have a quicker and more powerful team than any other, and thats even with using Ryder sparingly.
I thought Australia would be a big danger, but after their performance against England I think they can be counted out of this one. They have a few stars in their team and what looks to be a solid defence, but the lack pure pace will begin to count as tiredness sets in.
England beat the Aussies, but Australia were down to 6 men for a period and England still struggled. Varndell and Paul seem to be playing well, but England look a little weak in defence and a powerful nation should expose that.
South Africa can be discounted as well I think. They were beaten by Tonga and even though they responded well in their 2 following games, they rely too heavily on players like Basson and Juries and look poor defensively.
New Zealand have a big chance, and they too strolled through the opening stages. Like Fiji I don't think we've seen the best of them.
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So 3 contenders then - Fiji, New Zealand and England.
New Zealand tho are edged out far too often in the IRB series, often by Fiji, and they don't yet seem to have the right mentality.
England have had the edge over Fiji recently, thrashing them in the Los Angeles IRB 7s final, but I don't think they are playing as well as that here. What they have in creativity in the likes of Henry Paul and speed in Varndell, the Fijians can more than match, and I think the Fijians have as good as a 50% chance to take the gold here.
Fiji @ 2.76 with
Betfair
Commonwealth Games
TOTW/F/M Award(s): 1
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Those damn Aussies.
