New Zealand v Australia Betting Preview

Handicap – New Zealand -23 @ 1/1* with TopBetta

New Zealand welcome Australia to Eden Park on Saturday evening in the Rugby Championship, with the All Blacks looking to secure the Bledisloe Cup (the final Bledisloe Cup Test will be on 27th October in Japan) after beating the Wallabies 38-13 in the opening game of the series in Sydney last Saturday.

After an encouraging first 20 minutes the Wallabies were 6-0 just before halftime at the ANZ Stadium, but Aaron Smith went over for the All Blacks a couple of minutes before the interval to take New Zealand within a point of the hosts.

If the first-half was tight, the second-half was anything but, with New Zealand scoring 33 points with Jack Goodhue, Beauden Barrett, Brodie Retallick (with what was a try-bonus point) and, after Jack Maddocks pulled one back for Australia on his debut, Waisake Naholo then scored a late brace to ensure a comprehensive victory for the visitors.  Much of the All Blacks success in Sydney was down to forward dominance, particularly at lineouts.

The win was a record 13th consecutive Rugby Championship victory for the All Blacks and they will be confident of extending that run at Eden Park.  It was also revenge for New Zealand, after the Wallabies stunned them 23-18 in Brisbane last October for what was their first win over the All Blacks since 2015.  Last week’s defeat means that Australia has still not won back-to-back Tests against New Zealand since 2001.

It’s difficult to envisage the Wallabies being able to bounce back from the Sydney drubbing within a week, even more so now that they will facing New Zealand in their own backyard.

No doubt all the right noises will be coming from the Wallabies camp about going to Eden Park to win, but they will be travelling more in hope than expectation on that front.  The bookies are clearly of the same opinion based on the betting odds they’ve put up for the game, with New Zealand 1.07 with Unibet, Australia 10.00 with bet365* and the draw 51.00, also with bet365*.

The better option is the Handicap, where you can get 1/1 at TopBetta on the All Blacks -23 points.  Their second-half performance in Sydney suggests that is a distinct possibility.

* Odds correct at the time of writing