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Dropping of Cipriani from the Scotland v. England Match on Sat 8 March rugby union betting buffs might have reacted with dismay to hear that Danny Cipriani, the Wasps fly-half was sensationally dropped from the England team for their match with Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday. Cipriani had been photographed leaving a London Nightclub in the early hours of Thursday morning, a clear breach of the rules for the team prior to a major game.

Arguably, the expulsion weakened the team and caused a dip in team morale which may have had some bearing on the woeful result with England losing 15-9 to a side widely predicted to be a contender for the wooden spoon prior to the series. On the face of it, a major error on the part of coach and manager Brian Ashton, as former coach, Sir Clive Woodward, former captain, Laurence Dallaglio and others have been quick to claim.

The bigger picture, though, may reveal that Ashton’s drastic action is exactly what English team sport needs if it is to wake up and be able to meet the challenges posed by world-class teams which train and perform in a different world to our own. On Saturday, the England Rugby team buckled under the onslaught of the Scots, on Sunday the England Test cricket team crashed to ignominious defeat in New Zealand. In the last West Indies test series, drunken loutishness was evident among some team members.

The online betting fan is tired of seeing his team capitulate at the first sign of serious demand on talent and preparation. Fed up with seeing overweight bowlers trundling down the wicket in the blazing heat, under-practiced fielders going through a random phase of dropping the ball at every opportunity or first-order batsmen succumbing to a lazy stroke, then blaming the pitch while the number 10 bat gets 45 runs.

It’s got to end somewhere down the line and perhaps Ashton’s action in imposing boundaries and sticking to them is the sort of measure which brings short term problems but, in the end will, at last, bring long-term gains.

Saturday 23rd February is a critical moment for England in the RBS Six Nations tournament this Saturday. Up against top-of-the-table France, England will need to shake off the second–half decline that has characterised their last two appearances against Wales, where they lost, and Italy where a comfortable first-half lead was squandered in a display of headless chickenry that has left commentators, coaches, six nations betting enthusiasts and players dumbfounded about where to go from here.

Captain, Paul Vickery, in an admirable address to his players, has called an end to blaming everyone else and declared that ‘It’s time to take ownership and responsibility for our own performance’. Sports betting fans will join me in feeling how true this and how refreshing to it is to hear. 

Vickery was the man whose inspirational pre-match words roused the troops into battle at the Stade de France just four months ago when the English crushed the French team during one of the most memorable and satisfying periods of English Rugby in a long time. Vickery and England need to find this resolve again to pick themselves up from their disappointing performances thus far to take on a France which will undoubtedly be seeking revenge for the England triumph over them in the semi-final of World Cup 2007. It’s another daunting fact that the last time England beat France in the Six Nations, at the Stade de France, was in the year 2000.

Wales have yet to be beaten in the competition and should dominate in their home encounter with Italy. Rugby Union betting buffs should note that a win from them, earlier in the day, will put further pressure on England who have a late, 20.00 GMT, start in France.

Ireland against Scotland… well, you’d have to go with Ireland here. Apart from a brief flourish in the World Cup qualifying rounds last year, Scotland seem to succumb to defeat at every opportunity these days and the team should, perhaps, be forced to watch ‘Braveheart’ before the match. Either that or hurry up and opt for an independent Scotland and start building a new national identity and thus a stronger self-belief.

Six Nations Free Bets abound this weekend and rugby union betting enthusiasts will have spotted that things didn’t go quite according to plan last week. Well, England’s plan anyway. A smooth and expected early lead was achieved over the Welsh and England sauntered into the half-time dressing room with a comfortable 16-6 margin in the bag. Then, with depressing predictability, in the second half the English malaise kicked in and Wales calmly ended a twenty year wait to put the Hoorays in their place. Under the pounding of the Welsh attack, England succumbed to a total breakdown of confidence and were reduced to a pack of headless chickens.
 
Online betting fans will look at the table and see only two of the expected three teams nestling comfortably at the top. After last year’s World Cup, it was always going to be an England/France thing with Wales snapping at their ankles while Ireland, Scotland and Italy scuffled to avoid the Wooden Spoon. This Saturday and Sunday should see France and Wales with comfortable wins and, thankfully, England have the chance to work through problems with their Italy encounter.
 
Much wringing of hands has occurred since last Saturday and calls for Wilkinson to be replaced by Cipriani resound in the press . . .  youth must be brought in to counter the arrogant presumption that England will always rule etc etc. There’s some truth in this but, for me, watching the England display was reminiscent of Greg Norman in the 1996 Masters when he broke down on the back nine on the last day.
 
Analysts need to look into the reasons why our nation produces teams and individuals who crack under any sign of strain. Football, tennis, cricket – whatever the sport we watch and wait for the collapse. Until we grasp the implications of that, it is not a new manager or coach that’s needed in the dressing room but perhaps rather Paul McKenna; sports betting devotees will continue to suffer a peculiarly English disappointment.

So it’s England against South Africa for world cup rugby betting fans. We blogged they could do it and now they are there - in the final - against a formidable opposition. Rugby free bets need to be ready this week for you to get the best betting odds for this titanic match.

After Saturday’s victory against France, England showed how they have improved in every area during this tournament and especially since the 36-0 thrashing at the hands of South Africa in the qualifying stages. This is a very special group fo guys who are able to dissect their game and improve each area in turn. Against the Aussies, we showed that our attacking options were coming together and we can provide a real threat, particularly up front. But, the slight downside to that performance was some of our first up tackling which let the Aussies punish us territorially. On Saturday though, this was the area where we had really lifted our game. Our defensive lines were superb against a fantastic french side and to keep them from crossing our try line was a massive effort that affords the utmost praise.

So with England now seemingly having improved beyond comparison to their previous encounter against the Boks, the final shapes up to be a game that will be up there with the classics. My feeling is that England’s forwards will take it the South Africans and our defence won’t let them through.

South Africa made hard work of a victory against Fiji and the scoreline against Argentina flattered them as the Argies looked nervous and lost their cool to give an uncharacteristic error-strewn performance.

I state for the record that I can see England winning comfortably.

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!

As the rugby world cup progresses, the England team to face Tonga this weekend and rugby free bets will be picked up at pace as we see captain Phil Vickery on the bench for start of the game. The question has to be asked - does Brian Ashton have the ruthlessness it takes to get the most out of this England squad? It would seem so. The front row against Samoa last Saturday gave a superb performance against a powerful Samoan pack. This front row excluded Vickery who seemed sluggish in the previous two games that he played in in the tournament.

So, despite being given the skippership, Phil Vickery is ruthlessly brought down to earth, as is Shaun Perry after his disapponting show against South Africa. Andy Gomarsall showed why he is back in the frame by giving a sharpness to the backs which allowed England to finally make yardage when they win possession in midfield.

England looked like a team who had had a sharp kick up the backside last Saturday. Brian Ashton may just have stirred things up in the England camp by pressuring all the players, especially those that tend to maintain there places, as the forwards looked to have a sharpness about them that has been missing for four years.

If the improvement shown last Saturday is increased this Friday, I think England will blow Tonga away. Even more than that, I think we could look to peak at the right time and after watching the all blacks on Sunday, we have nothing to fear! They are very beatable and we have the players to do it.

A strong performance by England against Wales in the Rugby Union clash at Twickenham on Saturday saw the rugby betting world a little surprised by the result. One likes to be positive about the England victory which was platformed by a dominant forward unit that the Welsh couldn’t live with.

It was great to see Shaun Perry creating the kind of menacing presence around the scrum and breakdowns, that you would have associated with Matt Dawson or Kieran Bracken. The weight that he has lost has obviously paid off and has made him a more complete player in his position and if he can maintain consistency then he will be hard to edge out.

There has to be a word of caution to the victory though,. England, with the amount of possession they had, should have experimented more with the backs and let them work a few things out. They still look short of ideas in mid-field and we need to be sure that Andy Farrell can live with the Southern Hemisphere teams in attack. The guy can tackle but we need him to break the line and gain yardage, at present he seems to do like a forward, i.e. barge in and then fall over!

France will be a better test and to really stretch ourselves, we should spin it out. Get the backs tested in attack, let them make mistakes now while it’s not too dramatic if they get it wrong. This is the way Martin Johnson approached the 2003 campaign, with tough opposition for the warm up games to get the honest truth and know where we are at this stage.

After another action packed weekend of Wimbledon tennis, British Grand Prix and plenty of others, rugby betting fans would have watched overseas action with Australia taking on South Africa at the Telstra stadium on Saturday.

The Aussies were down by 14 points after only 8 minutes as a try went over almost uncontested and then another breakaway try really shook them up. But they came back to eventually win the game 25 - 17 by suddenly shutting out the bocks and slowly squeezing the pressure back onto them.

It was also surprising to see the South Africans matched for physicality up front. Their usual brutal approach to forward play was stopped in it’s tracks and the backs were unable to get their usual yardage gain.

So where does this leave the Aussies in the rankings v the All Blacks? Well, not much changes really because we know that New Zealands’ defeat the weekend before will just spur them on and wake them up. One of the characteristics of the Kiwi game has always been to convert territory into points. Their last game when defeated by Australia, they had most of the territory and possession but didn’t convert it and that’s why they lost.

 Rest assured, they won’t be allowing themselves to make the same mistake and Graham Henry definitely won’t.

Still favourites? Now even more so.

If you watched the first rugby Test in South Africa on Saturday, you wouldn’t have enjoyed betting on the result but you would have been even more frustrated at the site of an under strength side that could have competed.

I’m going against what I’ve blogged about recently by saying that this side actually had the players to give a better game to the bocks and at a certain period in the second half looked as though they can play to the standard needed.

Not to take anything away from the Springbocks, because they were their normally powerful selves up front, but England seem to be hustled off the ball too easily and lacked composure when off loading.

The tackling let them down but not due to man on man tackling necessarily (although this was an issue) but more that the lack of thinking on their feet and keeping the defensive formation.

 Brian Ashton’s got his work cut out to get his squad to turn it around for the next test only this Saturday away. It seems a tall ask but I think there was a framework there on Saturday from which the English players can take something positive.

Hey - you’ve got to keep hoping, haven’t you?

Would you go betting on the six nations for an England win over Ireland on Saturday? Free Bets are available from bookies for the tournament but England fans will have a complete change of heart on where they bet online on Saturday.

It was an unsettling fright to hear on the news yesterday that Jonny Wilkinson had missed a training session with the England Rugby Squad. Apparently a tight hamstring was the cause of the worry but he is not yet out. He has until just hurs before te game to prove fitness but now we also have Jason Robinson out. England’s chances are therefore dramatically affected and you’ve got to think that they don’t have the calibur of player to replace them.

Strength in depth?

Do England now have the strength of squad that it took to win the 2003 world cup - doesn’t look like it! Something has to be looked at here if England are constantly relying on one or two players to give them the winning edge. The betting odds have swung in Ireland’s favour now and understandably so.

You can get your free bet on the six nations by visiting our six nations betting page.