Ireland v South Africa - Clash of the hemisphere champions

I can't wait for this game to kick off. It's been a big tease this whole Autumn International series knowing that this is waiting for us at the end.

This trip north for the Saffies has been difficult and they are clearly tiring. They had a long list of injuries at the start of the week but a fair few of them came through which somewhat exaggerated their price. In fact it's been a very interesting price graph on Betfair for the past 3 weeks. The Springboks starting off at the 1.65ish mark drifting after losing badly to Leicester and France. Their price moved quickly out past evens once Sexton was confirmed to start along with the fact they had cancelled training on Monday. The latter probably being more important.



I was very tempted to back them at 2.1 on Monday because the fact is they should never got that big. Should have, would have, could have and they are now back to the right price of 1.85.

To be honest I've found it very hard to formulate any straight forward bet apart from a bit of pre-match trading. Ireland will no doubt be sharper today and they'll need to be. If their forwards run off into the distance without protection like they did against Australia there will be turnover ball all day with Brussow sniping at the edges.

Personally I believe Sexton will unleash the backline much better than ROG ever can. Sure the Boks are going to be 'targeting' him however that if he handles it well this can play into Ireland's favour. Having a 7 or 1st centre looking to charge him down can allow him to create space for Wallace. Paddy is a completely underrated play-maker and if he has an inch of space he'll create plenty of openings for Bowe and BOD.

It's going to be a tough bruising game but Ireland will be the fitter fresher team. I believe the prices are about right now as Ireland should never have gone favourites for this game which they did do briefly on Tuesday. I'm going to be sitting back and watching this game with a small value bets and a pint in hand. In fact there may be a few pints drunk considering the last game of today's fantastic schedule ends 7 hours after Ireland's kick off. Bring it on.

Recommendation: South Africa/Ireland Halftime/Fulltime for 0.5pts at 8.0 on Betfair. Tommy Bowe to Score anytime @4.33 for 0.5pts on Paddy Power.