For us english rugby betting fans, it’s all about turn as the odds take a plummet over one weekend. Get your rugby world cup free bets organised as the bookmakers re-evaluate the odds for England the competition. Were you one of those who had the courage to stick with England and achieve 50/1 on them winning the tournament before it started? You won’t get that now, as the difference is incredible at 6/1.

One of the classic matches against the old enemy took place on Saturday as the England pack finally clicked (see our previous blog) and boy oh boy, didn’t they show what they can do. It’s not often that you see the Australian pack bullied out of a game but thanks to the likes of Andrew Sheridan, that’s exactly what happened. The Aussie front row couldn’t cope with the English after the first 20 minutes, when the ref. seemed to get the culprits wrong in the collapsing scrums. When he finally got the idea of who was bringing it down, the Aussies went backwards! We took them on in the loose and despite dogged defence, as you’d expect, we were gaining the hard yards.

In the backs, we showed generally good defence but this first-up tackling needs to be improved. It’s where we let oppositions back into a game when they don’t deserve it. The french, with their extra pace in the back line will exploit this to the full and even take us apart if their forwards get their share of possession.

This next Saturday is going to be another test for the English side but probably more for our backs than forwards this time. Our pack will no doubt gain parity up front and may dominate, but the french can click, as we did last game, and their backs could prove to be a much sterner test for our first up defence.

 Get set for a powder keg of an atmosphere for this one!