Rugby World Cup Odds: Who Will Win The Webb Ellis Cup In France?
The first weekend of games are now finally out of the way and with all the main contenders up and running, the best betting sites are once again examining who is most likely to win the Rugby World Cup (RWC).
Last Friday night saw the tournament opening with a blockbuster encounter between host nation France and New Zealand in front of 78,750 spectators at Stade de France in Saint-Denis.
Coming into this year’s RWC, these two sides were up there as the principle favourites to come away with the Webb Ellis Cup.
This is easy to understand, given New Zealand have long been the standard bearers in international rugby and are three-time winners of the World Cup, while France will be playing on home soil and were Six Nations Grand Slam champions as recently as 2022.
Although there was little to separate them, the All Blacks were slightly favoured over their Les Bleus counterparts in the race to secure top honours – in the eyes of many key bookmakers at least.
France Have The Measure Of New Zealand In Tournament Opener
Despite some difficult results since the last World Cup finals in 2019, New Zealand did manage to win The Rugby Championship for a fourth successive time earlier this year.
The addition of former Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt in a more substantial backroom role was seen as a big boost to New Zealand supremo Ian Foster, who will be replaced by Scott Robertson in the aftermath of this year’s tournament.
Both halves of their Pool A clash with France on Friday certainly began as well as he could have hoped as winger Mark Telea followed up his second-minute try with another clinical finish just three minutes into the second period.
Yet the second of his five-pointers proved to be New Zealand’s final score of the game as the hosts took complete control of the contest.
Adding onto three penalties from full-back Thomas Ramos before the interval, Damian Penaud and Melvyn Jaminet crossed the All Blacks whitewash on 55 and 78 minutes respectively.
With Ramos contributing eight additional points off the kicking tee, France ultimately emerged with a famous 27-13 triumph.
This puts New Zealand in very unfamiliar territory as they have never lost a pool stage fixture before at the Rugby World Cup.
Even though it is still anticipated that the southern hemisphere side will progress to the knockout rounds of the tournament, it will more than likely be as Pool A runners-up rather than winners.
As it turns out, last Friday’s result has seen France not only becoming favourites to win their pool, but to emerge as outright champions of the World Cup itself.
Ahead of their clash with Uruguay at Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Lille, the French are 3/1 favourites with the best betting sites for rugby union to claim the Webb Ellis trophy for the very first time.
All Blacks Now Third Favourites For Webb Ellis Glory
While there was a similar value on Les Bleus in advance of the New Zealand game, the All Blacks themselves have dropped off slightly in the wake of their 14-point defeat – their biggest losing margin at the World Cup.
Seen by many UK bookmakers as a 3/1 possibility before the tournament began, the Kiwis are now a 9/2 prospect with William Hill.
This shows how one game can lead to a dip for a team in the prices and thanks to their gritty 18-3 win at the expense of Scotland in Pool B, South Africa are currently right on their coat tails.
South Africa And Ireland Very Much In The Reckoning
At just 6-3 in front at the break, the Springboks (the reigning holders of the Webb Ellis Cup) grabbed tries through Pieter-Steph du Toit and Kurt-Lee Arendse on the resumption to see off the challenge of the Scots.
This puts them in an excellent position in their quest for a knockout spot and another success against Ireland on September 23 could well be enough to propel them to top place in the pool.
Interestingly, there are some bookmakers who have South Africa at shorter odds for back-to-back World Cups than New Zealand with Coral offering 11/4 on them once again rising to the top of world rugby’s ladder.
They might be second favourites for the time being, but that could easily change before the pool stages come to an end.
Still the number one ranked side in the world – albeit with just 0.15 points to spare over South Africa – Ireland remain high in the thoughts of bookmakers for a ground-breaking World Cup success.
Despite falling behind to a Gabriel Rupanu try with just two minutes gone on the clock, the Green Army ran riot in their Pool B opener against Romania in Bordeaux on Saturday.
The returning Jonathan Sexton, Bundee Aki, Peter O’Mahony and Tadhg Beirne bagged a brace of five-pointers as Ireland ran in 12 tries over the course of an 82-8 demolition of the Romanians.
Ireland are 9/2 with a host of bookmakers for World Cup glory this time last week, the Irish are the same value with some bookmakers ahead of their second pool fixture against Tonga on Saturday.
However, they are at the slightly longer odds of 5/1 available with BetVictor at the time of writing.
England Now Leading List Of World Cup Outsiders
Prior to last weekend’s action, Australia were leading the chasing pack behind the above four teams in the betting for a World Cup triumph.
The Wallabies did begin Pool C with a 35-15 victory, but now find themselves adrift of England.
This is perhaps unsurprising given the English defeated Argentina 27-10 in a Pool D game that many people felt they were going to struggle in.
All of their points came from the boot of George Ford and with odds of 12/1bookmakers are suddenly have a bit more confidence in England for this tournament.
Although a number of bookies fall within this value range on Australia, the two-time world champions can be found at 14/1 with BoyleSports.
After squeezing past the challenge of Fiji in Pool C on a scoreline of 32-26, Wales remain outsiders for World Cup success. Whilst Coral have odds of 20/1 on Warren Gatland’s men, the most common value on them is 33/1.
Parimatch – amongst others – are offering the same odds on Argentina to climb to the top of the Webb Ellis ladder.
The Pumas were disappointing in their tournament opener against England and will now have a fight on their hands to even get out of their pool.
The same can be said for the likes of Scotland and Fiji, who are both rated at 80/1 to bounce back from defeat in their first pool game and launch an astounding World Cup title charge.