Rugby World Cup: Wales and England in ‘Pool of Death’
Published:England will face Wales, Australia and Fiji in Pool A of the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
The hosts have been installed as the 8/1 third favourites in the wake of the draw that has seen Wales drift out to 16/1.
England are also the 11/8 favourites to win Pool A on home soil, while Australia are second favourites at 13/8, leaving Wales languishing third in the betting at 9/4.
While the thought of Wales facing England at Twickenham is a tantalising prospect for the neutral, fans of both countries would surely rather have avoided each other at this early in the competition.
The recent matches between the home nations have seen Wales win the last two, while England were victorious in the two prior to that (although they won’t be ‘recent encounters’ when the sides finally line up against each other in three years’ time).
Meanwhile, Ireland have also drawn a fairly tough group with Italy and France completing a trio of Northern Hemisphere sides, while Scotland’s main rivals for Pool B are Samoa and South Africa.
Despite their comprehensive defeat to England last weekend, New Zealand remain the favourites to win the overall tournament at 1/1, while they are a microscopic 1/33 to win their pool that also contains Argentina and Tonga.
LADBROKES LATEST BETTING
WINNERS OF RWC 2015
NEW ZEALAND 1/1
SOUTH AFRICA 5/1
FRANCE 7/1
ENGLAND 8/1
AUSTRALIA 10/1
WALES 16/1
IRELAND 16/1
SAMOA 33/1
100/1BAR
POOL BETTING
POOL A
11/8 ENGLAND
13/8 AUSTRALIA
9/4 WALES
50/1 ANY OTHER
POOL B
1/16 SOUTH AFRICA
10/1 SAMOA
16/1 SCOTLAND
50/1 ANY OTHER
POOL C
1/33 NEW ZEALAND
12/1 ARGENTINA
100/1 TONGA
100/1 ANY OTHER
POOL D
4/7 FRANCE
11/8 IRELAND
20/1 ITALY
50/1 ANY OTHER
