The Full Seven

New England manager Martin ‘Jonno’ Johnson, has quickly moved to promote Tabloid star Danny Cipriani into the Full England squad, less than a month after returning from his bad injury sustained last season. This was obviously to be expected, considering the injury loss of Jonny Wilkinson to yet another breakdown.

Cipriani has only played 2 full games since returning, and hasn’t exactly set the world on fire yet - but that is pretty hard with a mis-firing Wasps squad all around you. To be honest however, he has made most of his kicks at goal and doesn’t appear to be in any discomfort. Here’s hoping he gets back up to full speed and exhibits his glittering arrays of skills in time for the Autumn internationals.

Joining Danny Boy, are 2 Bath players - Michael Lipman who replaces Lewis Moody, and Nick Abendanon who replaces the off-colour Tom Varndell.

I’m quite happy with the look of the England Squad for the Autumn internationals. It brings to the table a good mix of youth, pace, unpredictability, grunt and experience.

Forwards: Steve Borthwick (Saracens), George Chuter (Leicester), Jordan Crane (Leicester), Tom Croft (Leicester), Dylan Hartley (Northampton), James Haskell (Wasps), Nick Kennedy (London Irish), Lee Mears (Bath), Michael Lipman (Bath), Luke Narraway (Gloucester), Tom Palmer (Wasps), Tim Payne (Wasps), Tom Rees (Wasps), Simon Shaw (Wasps), Andrew Sheridan (Sale), Matt Stevens (Bath), Phil Vickery (Wasps).

Backs: Olly Barkley (Gloucester), Danny Care (Harlequins), Harry Ellis (Leicester), Toby Flood (Leicester), Riki Flutey (Wasps), Shane Geraghty (London Irish), Dan Hipkiss (Leicester), Josh Lewsey (Wasps), Jamie Noon (Newcastle), Pete Richards (London Irish), Paul Sackey (Wasps), James Simpson-Daniel (Gloucester), Mathew Tait (Sale), Nick Abendanon (Bath), Danny Cipriani (Wasps).

The second round of matches in this years Heineken Cup were not entirely successful for the Guinness Premiership representatitves. There were a couple of expected wins, but also on the flip-side, a few expected defeats.

Leicester predictably dispatched the minnows of Treviso in a 60-16 thumping, and the Tigers remain a dangerous proposition the longer the competition goes on. Bath edged to victory against the Dragons in a pretty flat performance. I expect Bath to remain a danger and qualify for the later stages of the competition, and really feel they have a good chance at turning over Toulouse when they come knocking at the Rec.

Now we come to Wasps. What to say? The reigning Premiership champions have been a shadow of their ‘07/’08 vintage since the the beginning of the season, putting in sloppy performance after sloppy performance. Last weekend they were justifiably handed a 41-11 thrashing at Leinster, in what was a thoroughly unprofessional performance. This year they have no excuse of missing World Cup players, and even have boy-wonder Danny Cipriani back in the line-up. However, things are just not clicking at Wasps. It’s hard to put your finger on it. The loss of a true inspirational leader in Dallaglio has obviously hurt them, and the hole in midfield left by Fraser Waters (who now exhibits his skills at Treviso) seems to have unsettled their traditional in-ya-face defence and flowing counters. You still get that nagging feeling that it may just start working in the blink of an eye - and if it does, Wasps should still qualify from their group and can beat the best on their day. Dark horses for the cup… albeit currently dark horses who need a right royal kick up the jacksy.

Harlequins continued their steady and impressive performances with a 42-21 win against Ulster. Danny Care again running the show for the Quins with a try and setting up 2 others, and the little dynamo must have stamped his authority on the England Scrum-half position for the upcoming autumn internationals.

Sale slid to a home loss against reigning champions Munster, which was not entirely unexpected considering their patchy form recently.

The game of the weekend however, involved Cardiff Blues and Gloucester. It was a rip-roaring game and ended up with a Blues victory by 37-24. Predictably, the press and anyone else who fancied spouting off, started talking of the Blues as potential champions. It’s amazing what one result can do for a team and it’s ambitions and support!

The Heineken Cup now takes a break until mid-November. Alot can change in the intervening weeks. Teams can lose form as well as regain it. Injuries, training-ground punch-ups - you name it. All I will say is that there appears no clear favourite at this stage, and it is still far too early to write off others.

Viva la revolution

What’s better than having a few pints and watching the rugby at the weekend? Hmmm… toughy… but sprinkle a few financial punts into the mix and it makes it 10 times better! You find yourself suddenly prancing around the room like Austin Healey in Strictly Come Dancing, as Treviso score a last minute try to keep their drubbing down to 35 points! Perfect - I had £20 on Treviso with the +35.5 point handicap!!

Rugby is a glorious game. It also offers up some tasty betting opportunities, especially in the cup competitions. More often than not, the outright match odds are not too tempting for a punt, as odds for the home team are usually quite low, reducing potential profits. The real opportunities for good wins are in the points handicap markets. I tend to only really look at Betfair & Paddy Power when it comes to rugby punts. Betfair is my site of choice, as it allows you to oppose sides and ‘lay’ aswell as ‘Back’… in other words, you can set your odds and become the bookmaker. If you want to get a slice of the ‘backing and laying’ action, click the banner link below to open up an account and receive a free £10 bet to get you up and running!

At time of writing, Betfair puts up the weekend fixtures early in the week, but money doesn’t really come flooding into the market until late in the week, if not until the actual day of the game. The rugby markets on Betfair aren’t as liquid as others, but this is not always a bad thing, as often you will log on to the site and stumble across some rather silly odds which have been offered up by some rather impatient or narrow-minded punters.

I use Paddy Power if I’m putting on a traditional punt with the view of backing an eventuality and sticking to it… mainly when I’m unable to watch the match in-running and have a hunch on the scoreline.

The 3 markets to focus on are:
Match odds [your traditional win, lose or draw]
Handicap [your selection either starts with + or - points]
Total points [under or over the offered market points in the entire 80 minutes]

The odds for the overall winner of the leagues and cup competitions are also available from the start of the season. Betfair is perfect for this as you can plump for your market position on the fate of teams, and trade-off in-running as the competitions progress week after week.

Some current odds which I see potentially shortening in the coming weeks if these teams continue to make good and steady progress in the Heineken Cup:

Bath currently running at 14/1 on Betfair ** a price I see going down with a view to trade **
Wasps hovering at 16/1 on Paddypower ** If Wasps suddenly begin to click, they can beat anyone **
Tigers holding at 10/1 ** always dangerous **

I’m thinking about posting regularly on the profits and losses as a result of my Rugby punting. Sharing with you my punting plans, rules, and lessons learnt.. and maybe even mentioning that dirty subject of money with some sexy figures. Well - what I hope are going to be sexy.

Viva la revolution

This weekend saw the retun of the Heineken Cup, with teams from the Guinness Premiership, Magners League and French Top 14 clashing in the initial group stage of this annual cup competition. I’ve got to say that Heineken Cup weekends are extremely tasty at this time of the year - especially if like me, you have just upgraded your Sky subscription to include Sky HD! The schedule on Sky Sports for the weekend had me licking my greedy little lips for the past week. A wall-to-wall smorgasbord of top-class european rugby.

There’s nothing better than having a lazy rugby watching weekend with some good food, potent drink and a big fat widescreen TV displaying the crashes, smashes, rucks, mauls and gaffs in glorious HD crisp, clean quality!

I have been slighlty underwhelmed by the excitement factor in this years early Premiership proddings - something I’m suspiciously linking to the introduction of the several ELV’s that are being tried out. This 1st weekend of ‘H-Cup’ matches has followed the same lines, with few rock-and-rolling scorelines exhibiting a glut of tries and thrills and spills. Most of the results have been nervy, tight, tactical, kicky kicky affairs. We shall see how the groups progress. Below are the results… nothing of great surprise, but some near misses by unfancied teams:

Leicester  12-6  Ospreys
Toulouse  18-16  Bath   ** Toulouse win with last kick at goal… hard cheese on Bath imo **
Wasps  25-11  Castres
Calvisano  20-56  Cardiff Blues
Clermont Auvergne  15-32  Sale  ** Bonus point away win by Sale - impressive **
Edinburgh  16-27  Leinster
Gloucester  22-10  Biarritz
Dragons  32-22  Glasgow
Scarlets  22-29  Harlequins  ** Eye-catching comeback from the ‘quins **
Ulster  10-26  Stade Francais
Munster  19-17  Montauban
Perpignan  27-16  Treviso

Team of the round: Shared between BATH & SALE (Bath came SO close to winning at European goliaths Toulouse, and Sale plundered 4 tries away from home against fancied Frenchies Clermont)

Oh so close: Shared between MONTAUBAN & BATH (Damn shame for both. Montauban so nearly knocked the arrogance out of Munster, and Bath deserved a win against Toulouse… but Bath will be back. Mark my words!)

If anyone out there is reading this… it would be great to hear your views on the first round of ‘H-Cup’ matches. Seriously… this blog is not going to fade away after 1 post. I give you my word! If that’s worth anything? Hmmm. Hey-ho, let’s go, onto more and more posts and matches.

Viva la revolution