Australia Rugby World Cup Odds: What Betting Price Are The Wallabies?
It may seem bizarre given their overall history in the competition, but Australia will more than likely find themselves being labelled with the underdog tag by betting sites coming into next year’s World Cup finals in France.
Winners of this global competition in 1991 and 1999, the Wallabies also made it to the final in 2003 and 2015.
For good measure, they also claimed third spot in the 2011 edition of the tournament and were ranked fourth at the inaugural World Cup (which they co-hosted with neighbours New Zealand) in 1987.
Indeed, Australia have made it to the last-eight at the very least in all nine of the finals that have taken place to date.
The only other nations to have managed this feat are the aforementioned New Zealand and France.
Australia Drop Down In World Rankings
Yet the past couple of weeks has seen the Wallabies dropping to ninth in the world rankings – a record low for the Australian national team.
The result that first brought about this dramatic change was the much-discussed 39-37 defeat to the All Blacks in the third round of The Rugby Championship in Melbourne on September 15.
While this seemed a little harsh on Dave Rennie’s men when you consider their performance in this test was actually quite strong overall, a subsequent 40-14 reversal to New Zealand in Auckland last Saturday makes it difficult to argue against them falling down the pecking order.
Wallabies Outsiders For World Cup Glory
Of course, the world rankings and the order of merit for a World Cup are entirely different propositions and this is reflected in the 2023 Rugby World Cup betting odds.
Despite being behind them in the world rankings at the moment, the Wallabies are ahead of Wales, Argentina and Scotland in the minds of bookmakers for the Webb Ellis Cup.
This is an interesting anomaly in the case of Wales, who have been drawn in the same pool as Australia for next year’s finals.
Whereas Wales are somewhere in the region of 19.0 to 26.0 to win the World Cup for the first time, the odds on Australia reproducing the old magic from 1991 and 1999 are much shorter.
That’s because Ladbrokes have the Wallabies at 12.0 to secure top global honours for the third time in their history.
Not Much Change In Australia’s World Cup Odds
Although form has a huge bearing on where you are positioned in the world rankings, Australia’s performances in The Rugby Championship has seemingly had little impact on their World Cup odds.
Before the beginning of the tournament in August – and following the completion of their unsuccessful three-test summer series with England – Australia were generally being regarded as 11.0 outsiders to secure a third World Cup.
This put them as sixth favourites behind France, New Zealand, England, Ireland and South Africa and this has remained the case ever since.
Part of the reason for this is that, in spite of mixed form in recent months, online rugby betting sites are still expecting the Wallabies to reach the World Cup knockout rounds with minimal fuss.
They will have a fight on their hands with Wales for pole position in Pool C, but it will be a massive shock if Fiji, Georgia or a yet-to-be revealed final qualifier was to usurp them in the race for a top-two spot.
Wallabies Hoping For Better Luck Than 2019 Finals
Simply making it to a quarter-final won’t go down as a great achievement in Australia, however, and the rugby fraternity in the southern hemisphere nation will be looking for some sign that a stronger showing than their disappointing 2019 effort is on the cards.
Remarkably, Australia also faced Wales, Fiji and Georgia in the pool stages of the World Cup three years ago.
A 29-25 defeat to the Welsh meant they were forced to settle for a runners-up spot in Pool D and this put them on a collision course with England in the quarter-finals.
Australia Still Capable Of Taking On The Best
As they are now, the English were coached by former Wallabies supremo Eddie Jones back then and a 40-16 loss ensured that Australia crashed out of the tournament with a whimper.
Dave Rennie took over from Michael Cheika after the World Cup had ended and the New Zealanders’ current record of 11 wins from 29 internationals indicates that consistency has been a problem throughout Rennie’s reign to date.
That said, the Aussies have defeated New Zealand, England, France and South Africa since he took over, which shows they are still capable of beating the best in the world on a given day.
Rennie has also handed a number of new caps within the past two years, and he will be hoping to see them develop into fully fledged internationals by the time the World Cup comes around.