World Cup 2023 Group A Betting Preview – Rugby Picks, Predictions and Odds

Record all-time World Cup winners New Zealand (tied with South Africa) are arguably having one of their lowest fanfares heading into a World Cup finals ever, sitting 3rd in the world rankings overall but with the limelight placed firmly on other teams, France and Ireland most notably.

The bookies however aren’t taking the bait and have New Zealand placed firmly as the 2nd favorite to lift the Webb Ellis Cup come October.

A large part of New Zealand heading into this World Cup a little under the radar is the fact Ireland went over to New Zealand last year and beat them in back-to-back test matches, with South Africa and Argentina also following suit and handing the All-Blacks’ subsequent defeats by pretty convincing margins as well.

That said, New Zealand are definitely not a team to be underestimated ahead of this tournament, and could be at their most dangerous as a result.

Ardie Savea is one of the most explosive forwards on the planet right now, putting in a red-hot performance in a 53-3 revenge blowout of Argentina last year, and he could be a major game-changer for the All-Blacks in this year’s tournament as well.

In Richie Mo’unga, Aaron Smith, and Sam Whitelock also, New Zealand has the experience to get the job done, and with the All-Blacks finishing top of the group in every single World Cup group stage campaign since the inaugural competition back in 1987, this is a team who definitely shouldn’t be overlooked ahead of this year’s tournament.

At odds of +5000 just to win the group, it’s clear that the books don’t give the Italians much of a chance in this year’s competition.

That’s little surprise either considering Italy finished bottom of the group yet again in the recent Six Nations tournament earlier this year, giving up almost 30 points per game to opponents in the process, but can at least point to two solid performances against two of the best teams in world rugby right now in France and Ireland respectively.

Italy should clear the hurdles of both Uruguay and Namibia in the group given the Azzurri have been improving across recent years.

With their ruck speed continuing to get faster and the fact that they actually won half of their second halves in the Six Nations this year also (a long-standing criticism of Italy being their tendency to fade late in games). So things are definitely looking up for Kieran Crowley’s squad ahead of this tournament.

That said, while they’ll no doubt register two victories against the minnows of the group, and have one eye firmly locked on that final group game against France in Lyon on October 6th, a qualification berth looks like an extremely tall order for the Italians given the strength of both France and New Zealand right now, and unfortunately they look destined for a 3rd spot in this year’s Pool A.

Uruguay & Namibia (+100000)