The British and Irish Lions will be
taking on Australia in a three Test Series in what promises to be a
momentous battle Down Under. The Lions have actually taken on some
supremacy for winning the series outright after Warren Gatland
assembled a very promising looking squad for the tough tour. So while
the British and Irish Lions look to have a very good and realistic
chance of coming away with a famous win, who are going to the be the
ones to step out in the starting fifteen to take on the Wallabies in
the first of the three Tests? This is a great rugby betting angle to
take a look at. Gatland as a 37 man squad to choose from.
The Lions have taken fifteen victories
from their last 20 Test matches against Australia since back in 1899,
so they are in pretty good shape. The initial squad of 37 named by
Gatland included 15 Welsh players, 10 from England, nine Irish
representatives and three Scottish players. Naturally there will be a
bit of shuffling in the numbers as injuries start to mount up and
replacements drafted in. Wales’ Sam Warburton was handed the role
of captaining the squad and so, as long as he is fit, will naturally
be one name going down on the team sheet for the opening Test match
against Australia. So that’s one concrete Welshman in the Test
side.
There is a clear divide in the betting
markets for the country with the most starters in the first Test.
Wales are more likely than not to have the lion’s share of the
Lion’s places, trading as overwhelming favourites. But how many
Welsh players will get to start the 1st Test? The confidence of the
Welsh is high after winning the Six Nations earlier in the year.
Under 7.5 Welsh players to get the start is trading at odds of 10/11,
while Over 7/5 is being offered at odds of 4/5. It is in the back
line that the Welsh are most likely to dominate, with a clutch of
players like Jamie Roberts, Jonathan Davies and Alex Cuthbert and
George North pushing for starting places on the wing. Leigh Halfpenny
may be hard to leave out as full back as well, after top scoring in
the Six Nations.
England have some good options to fill
spots in the starting line up but may struggle to take precedence
over the Welsh and Irish players. England are trading at Under 3.5
players to start the first Test against Australia at a price of 4/9,
while going over that mark was being offered at Evens. The Welsh are
likely to fill most of the positions in the initial Test side, but
Ireland have a very realistic chance of posting more starting players
than perhaps the English do, and Irish players Under 3.5 is trading
at odds of Evens, with over that mark being offered at around 8/3.
With Scotland taking so few players, they are at odds of 6/4 to have
over 0.5 players starting the first Test.
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