Wales vs Portugal Betting Tips: Two predictions for Rugby World Cup clash on Saturday
Wales managed to fend off a late onslaught from Fiji to kick off their Rugby World Cup campaign with a victory last weekend and Warren Gatland's side are hot favourites to make it two wins from two on Saturday afternoon when they face a Portugal side that are one of the minnows of the tournament and will be huge outsiders to down the Welsh in Nice.
Narrow 32-26 winners in their first Group C match, Wales will be facing a Portugal side that will be having their first run-out at this World Cup, but they look to face a tough few weeks in France as they are one of the outsiders for the entire tournament and will struggle to land any sort of blow on the major nations. Our man Steve Chambers tries to find some value in the betting for this clash at 16:45 and he has found a brace of bets to go to war with...
Wales vs Portugal Tips
A paltry 1/80 to bag the win, Wales are no value whatsoever in the match betting and the handicap (Wales -30.5) is a dodgy area as we saw with France's win over Uruguay that multiple changes can have a negative effect on teams. In total 13 changes have been made by coach Warren Gatland for Saturday's clash, but one stand out player for the Welsh is winger Louis Rees-Zammit, who will be unleashed from the start and the free-scoring speedster could have a field day if given the ball in wide areas.
A tryscorer in the win over Fiji, the 22-year-old Gloucester man showed his talents in that opening group match and willing to come off his wing to find work he could be given a lot of ball. The current 13/2 favourite to score the first try in the match, Rees-Zammit is a meagre 4/6 to score at anytime in the match, which is certainly a little short. However, Boylesports are offering an attractive 5/1 for the winger to score a hat-trick and with him potentially staying on for the 80 minutes then he could well run the Portuguese defence ragged with his raw pace and the 5/1 for him to grab three tries is the standout bet.
One of the shining beacons of the Welsh attack, Rees-Zammit could well throw his hat into the ring to be top tryscorer at this Rugby World Cup and he can bag a hatful of tries in this contest.
Wales nearly grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory last weekend as Fiji ran in two late tries to get within six points of the Welsh and had Semi Radradra collected the ball out wide in the dying embers of the game then Fiji could well have grabbed a sensational win. Such is that fact that Wales appear to be out on their feet in the closing stages suggest that they could well take their foot off the pedal in the second half, with the game likely to be already won at the break.
With that in mind, then it's worth backing for there to be more points scored in the first half of the match at 6/5 with bet365 as Gatland will be looking for his men to show a reaction to that late collapse in the Fiji game and they could well fly out of the traps and bang in some early tries. Understandably, should the Welsh be 30/40 clear at the 60-minute mark they could well look to shut up shop and try things out with their replacements, so the odds-against for the first half to be the highest scoring half if the standout second bet in a game that should see Wales make it two wins out of two.
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