Rugby World Cup 2023: What Predictions for Australia?
by Joseph King | by Joseph King
Australia Seeking First World Cup Triumph in 21st Century
Australia travel to France with the goal of winning their first Rugby World Cup in over 20 years. The Wallabies strongest era in international Rugby was in the 1990s where they would lift the Webb Ellis Cup on two occasions. The first came at the 1991 World Cup and the second was at the turn of the millennium in 1999. Since then, Australia has made the final on two other occasions, 2003 and 2015, only to finish as the runners-up in both. Australia exited the competition in the quarter-finals in 2019, marking only the third time in the 10 iterations of the World Cup that the Aussies failed to make it to the semi-finals. Only New Zealand and South Africa hold more Rugby World Cup titles at three apiece. Will Australia be able to snap out of their current rut in time to claim a record-tying third title? Be sure to check out our Rugby World Cup predictions page to see our experts’ opinions!
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Struggling Australia Will Have to Overcome Poor Form
Rugby Australia made the move to bring back familiar face Eddie Jones to lead the team for the World Cup. Jones is one of the most experienced coaches in the sport and led Australia to the final in 2003 where they would ultimately lose out to England.
The installment of the 63-year-old Jones did not have the immediate desired effect that Australia would have been hoping for. Jones took charge ahead of the Rugby Championship where his Wallabies would have a disastrous time, losing all three of their matches by an average margin of 21.6 points. Among the results was a 43-12 loss to the South Africans and a 38-7 defeat to the All Blacks. Australia put forth a better performance at the end of July when they met up with New Zealand again to contest an international friendly. They would rush out to a 17-3 lead but would then go on to concede 17 unanswered points, ultimately losing the encounter 23-20. The defeat marked Australia’s fourth in a row and as well as their seventh in the last eight matches.
Despite the abysmal recent results, Australia does seem to have a knack for turning it on when the big stage arrives. For that reason, along with their excellent pedigree, we won’t go as far as to call Australia ‘dark horses’ for the Rugby World Cup. However, their sharp downturn in form has many seemingly overlooking the two-time champions.
Even so, the talent in this squad is unmistakable. With players such as Rob Valentini, Mark Nawaqanitawase, man mountain Will Skelton, Samu Kerevi and Marika Koroibete, Australia can compete with any team in the world on their day. If they can pick up some steam early on and carry that momentum over into the knockout rounds, they certainly have the pieces in place to be crowned world champions for a record-tying third time.
Rugby World Cup 2023 - Australia’s fixtures
Pool C might turn out to be the most balanced of the four pools at the 2023 Rugby World Cup. All five teams are currently within eight places of one another in the world rankings. Australia come into this competition ranked eighth, Wales are one spot behind them in ninth, Fiji are ranked 10th, Georgia come in at 11th and Portugal are the lowest in the pool at 16th.
Here’s the complete fixture list (date and time according to UK time zone)
- Australia vs Georgia - September 9th 17:00, Stade de France
- Australia vs Fiji - September 17th 16:45, Stade Geoffroy-Guichard
- Australia vs Wales - September 24th 20:00, OL Stadium
- Australia vs Portugal - October 1st, 16:45, Stade Geoffroy-Guichard
You can follow the action for every single game at the 2023 Rugby World Cup on our Rugby World Cup Livescore page.
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What Bets to Make for Australia in the 2023 Rugby World Cup?
Australia come into this tournament with odds of 11.00 on bet365 and 12.00 on William Hill to win the 2023 Rugby World Cup. This has the Aussies as roughly the oddsmakers’ sixth-favorites to lift the Webb Ellis Cup.
So, can Australia actually win the Rugby World Cup? From a betting standpoint, we view a few things as working in their favor. First of all, Australia has received a favorable draw in terms of their potential opponents for the first knockout round. If they can win Pool C, which they are currently favored at odds of 1.36 to do just that, they’ll meet up with the Pool D runner-up in the quarter-final. Pool D is widely considered to be the weakest pool in the competition. England are heavy favorites to finish first, meaning a likely matchup with Argentina or possibly Japan in the quarter-final. This means that Australia would avoid having to play one of the competition’s heavy hitters until the semi-final, in which they would then likely match up with New Zealand, Ireland or South Africa.
At that point in a single elimination tournament, anything can happen. Especially when considering the level of talent that this Australia team possesses. It’s certainly a ‘buy low’ spot in backing the Wallabies given their recent results. However, their enticing odds make them a solid prospect if you’re looking to back a team outside of the top four favorites. Australia kick off their Rugby World Cup campaign against Georgia where the bookmakers currently have them listed as -23.5 point favorites (found on Vbet). If you believe that they’ll come out of the gates strong it could be worth jumping on that number as well. Stay tuned to our Rugby World Cup betting odds page for the latest bookmaker odds!
