South Africa v Australia
Rugby Championship – 4.05 pm
Sky Sports
This is the first match of the 2019 Rugby Championship. In it, South Africa will be looking to extend some positive home form against Australia. In the last four years, the Springboks have hosted the Wallabies four times and have taken a W3 D1 record from that sequence of games. In last year’s Championship, the two traded home wins. But South Africa had the last laugh. They finished second in the table to New Zealand, with Australia languishing behind them in third. Because 2019 is a World Cup year, teams only play each other once in the Rugby Championship. South Africa are strong 4/11 odds on favourites to win this fixture.
So that swings a huge advantage to the Springboks as they roll out in Port Elizabeth. This fixture then is pretty much looking as if it will be a decider for second place behind the Kiwis at the end of the campaign. Australia had a terrible 2018, recording a W4 L9 record in the calendar year. That was their worst output in a calendar year since 1958. They will head to the Nelson Mandela Stadium under some pressure to perform. An Australia +8 handicap is at 10/11 odds with leading bookmakers. While it’s been a while since they won in South Africa, none of their last three defeats there have been heavy ones. Will they see a narrow defeat as a success or can they spring a surprise victory?
Argentina v New Zealand
Rugby Championship – 00:40 am (Sunday 21st)
Sky Sports
The All Blacks will be starting the defence of yet another Rugby Championship title. They have won six of the seven previous editions of the tournament and will be looking for their fourth in a row. They start this season’s campaign with the fixture which, on paper, should be their easiest. New Zealand head to Buenos Aires to face up to Argentina, a team which they have never lost against before. New Zealand’s record against the Pumas is W32 D1 L0. That’s pretty dominant, to say the least.
In the last fifteen meetings between the two nations, just one of those fixtures have New Zealand failed to win by a margin of more than ten points. Because New Zealand are such overwhelming favourites to win, leading bookmakers have a -14 Handicap on them at 10/11 odds. Argentina though can take some kind of positive away from their campaign last year. For the first time in a single season of the Rugby Championship, they won two matches. The Pumas got their wins over Australia and South Africa. They didn’t really land a glove on the All Blacks though, suffering 18 and 22 point margin defeats against them.
Dillian Whyte v Oscar Rivas
Boxing – 10.00 pm
Sky Sports
Heavyweight Boxing is in such a good place at the moment. Dillian Whyte will try and continue his climb up the ladder to get a shot at a title. He steps into the ring on Saturday night as the odds-on favourite with leading bookies to beat Oscar Rivas. Such a strong favourite is the British boxer that he is at 8/5 to win by a stoppage at the O2 arena. Whyte is a man on a mission and isn’t a happy man. Whyte is the top man in the WBC and still hasn’t been able to land a title bout against Deontay Wilder primarily. So he has been missing out and that fuel may be a reason that punters consider him as one of the best bets of the day.
Since losing to Anthony Joshua in 2015, the only defeat in his career, Whyte has put together a nine-fight winning streak. He can’t afford to slip up, only keep pushing forward. He is taking on Colombian Rivas who has 26 wins from 26 fight. 18 of those were knockouts. So he could be a tricky opponent for Whyte. Rivas though has never been in a fight of this magnitude before. His last bout was back in January of this year against Americas Bryant Jennings which Rivas won to earn the IBF international heavyweight title. The Colombian is 10/3 to deliver an upset.
