Weekend Review: Bookies take a battering as favourites power on in Rugby World Cup

The bookies took a hit on the Rugby World Cup this weekend as all four favourites emerged victorious from their quarter-final clashes.

The action began on early on Saturday as England swept aside Australia 40-16 to set up a heavyweight semi-final showdown with New Zealand who triumphed over Ireland.

On Sunday, Wales made it through by the skin of their teeth after a dramatic late try from substitute Ross Moriarty sealed a 20-19 win against France who were a man down.

MOMENT OF MADNESS!🤯

Was Sebastien Vahaamahina's elbow on Aaron Wainwright the turning point in France's semi-final loss to Wales?#RWC2019 pic.twitter.com/NnqyyamQF1

— bwin (@bwin) October 20, 2019

The Welsh will now take on South Africa for a place in the final, after they eliminated the hosts Japan with a 26-3 victory.

Kindred Group said New Zealand’s 46-14 thrashing of Ireland proved the costliest result of the weekend.

Kindred Group racing strategy analyst Ali Gill said: “At the Rugby World Cup the quarter finals went mainly the way of the punters as we were in the red on 3 of the 4 matches.

“Wales snuck over the line in the same way we did with a very small profit, but the other matches went to the punters, with New Zealand’s domination of Ireland being the biggest loser for us.”

Betway’s Chad Yeomans said: “It was a break-even weekend on the rugby for us, with all favourites winning, three of them relatively comfortably.

“Potentially the biggest swing of the weekend was the red card for Sébastien Vahaamahina, as some punters cashed in at 9/2 on the card itself while the incident proved the turning point of the game.

“More positively, the favourites winning means that we have two excellent semi-finals for next weekend, including a blockbuster England v New Zealand clash on Saturday morning,” he added.

Huge honour to lead the team out yesterday 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Thanks again for all the support. #weartherose 🌹 pic.twitter.com/uha8364RFR

— Jonny May (@J0nnyMay) October 20, 2019

The layers did claw some of their rugby losses back on the Premier League after Tottenham drew with basement club Watford and Manchester United held table-toppers Liverpool to a 1-1 draw.

Adam Lallana netted an 85th minute equaliser after Marcus Rashford had put the hosts ahead in a match that ended Liverpool’s 17-game winning run.

Kindred’s Gill said: “It was a good weekend all told for us in the Premier League as our two biggest games of the weekend ended in a draw.

“Sunday’s clash between Man Utd and Liverpool was our biggest game by a distance, and the draw there was exactly what we were after as Liverpool’s winning run came to an end against a team not many punters gave a chance to.

“Spurs’ troubles continued, and we took another healthy margin from their draw with Watford.”

VAR once again grabbed the headlines as it correctly awarded Dele Alli’s 86th minute equaliser for Spurs, despite the big screen wrongly displaying the decision as ‘no goal’.

A point but still below the standards we set ourselves. Got to stick together to improve this run of results. pic.twitter.com/oZzwpBIgOe

— Harry Kane (@HKane) October 19, 2019

Betway’s Yeomans added: It was another weekend where the betting pendulum swung our way.

“Tottenham were fancied by punters to get a result at home to bottom-of-the-league Watford, but a late Dele Alli equaliser secured a point.

“Elsewhere, with Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid all failing to win on Saturday, our traders were very happy indeed.”

Betdaq saw £3.3m matched on Premier League betting on the exchange over the weekend.