Betting.Betfair

[i]The Betfair Contrarian has already presented the case as to why New Zealand won't be crowned champions at the end of the seventh Rugby World Cup later this month, now he's ready to tell you who will. Here's why he's excited by the 6.8 available on Wales taking the trophy back to the northern hemisphere...[/i] [u]Wales are on a roll [/u] Warren Gatland's side have plenty of momentum, having responded to a narrow defeat to South Africa in their opener with four straight victories, each one more impressive than the last. It's been noticeable in recent years that when Wales hit form, they are very difficult to stop. Two obvious examples are their 2005 and 2008 Six Nations triumphs when, after convincing starts, they twice completed the Grand Slam. They failed to even finish in the top...

If there's one thing the Rugby World Cup has taught us, it is that as a coach or manager you can make all the rules you like, but in the end it comes down to the players. If they choose to ignore them you've not got a prayer. It's why Martin Johnson is arriving home as a failure today and Warren Gatland is still in Auckland being feted as a genius. Jonno set a code of conduct for his England players and believed he could trust them to behave like men. He thought it was fine for their wives and girlfriends to keep them company, and for the single lads to be able to enjoy an occasional night out and a drink. He had meetings to talk about standards of behaviour. And in the end half his side didn't take a blind bit of notice, and some of the married boys went out and got plastered too. Meanwhile,...

[i]The Betfair Contrarian opposed New Zealand in the Tri-Nations - a bold call, as they'd taken the title in five of the previous six years. Now he's stunned to find 1.79 offered on them delivering in the World Cup. Here's why he's excitedly opposing the All Blacks again at 1.81...[/i] [u]They've disappointed too often[/u] The All Blacks are always favourites to lift the World Cup, so why is it that you have to scan back to the inaugural contest in 1987 to find the last time that they got their hands on the silverware? Because they consistently prove incapable of justifying the big billing. Four years ago, they were backed at 1.38 before sinking to a new low by missing out on the final four, losingin the quarter-finals to France. [u]Home advantage is overrated[/u] Hosting the...

[b]Geoffrey Riddle caught up with the Kiwi coach for an exclusive chat ahead of the first weekend of Autumn Internationals...[/b] Although muffins and coffee are freely available at the table we are sat at, [b]New Zealand coach Graham Henry[/b] proudly brandishes a take-away cup from one of the establishments on Kensington High Street.The 64-year-old did not come this far in his coaching life without knowing what he really wants. And it is clear that the Aucklander, who was once the highest paid international coach when he in charge of [b]Wales[/b] between 1998 and 2002, likes a little gamble, too. After the painful 26-24 loss to Australia in Hong Kong last weekend, Henry has had to shuffle his 29-man tour squad around, and not wanting to miss an opportunity at blooding one...

[b]England vs New Zealand on the rugby field is one of sport's more one-sided fixtures, typically found just beneath bullfighting for its consistency of outcome. England have lost eight straight against the All Blacks, yet the Contrarian has pencilled in this Saturday as the day that Martin Johnson's men topple the best team in the world for the first time in over seven years...[/b] [b]England are getting closer each year[/b] The All Blacks have maintained their winning form against England in their last few skirmishes but the margins have gradually become less emphatic, with the 32-point loss three meetings ago reduced to 26 five months later. England then lost out by only 13 last November in a game that was level at the halfway point and in which the hosts restricted New Zealand...

Eamon Dumphy, ghost writer for Roy Keane's notorious autobiography, produced one of the best sporting books of all time. Called [b]Only a Game[/b], it was a diary of the 1973-4 season when he was playing for Millwall, and was the first ever honest account by a player of life inside a football club. I remember it for exposing the selfishness of the average sportsman (don't let anybody kid you that the cyncial manoeuvring by the likes of [b]Wayne Rooney[/b] is a new phenomenon). It also showed how the professionals will take whatever rules are introduced for the good of the sport, and adapt them to their own ends. There was one great tale of a training session where the coach, concerned at the lack of [b]dribbling[/b] skills, put on a game with a rule that somebody had to go past a...