France no longer favourites with the bookmakers after Ntamack injury
World Cup host nation France have lost the favourites tag with the bookmakers after a devastating double blow losing flyhalf Romain Ntamack and prop Cyril Baillie to injury.
On the eve of the World Cup the key injuries came in France's warm-up clash with Scotland where they fielded a near-full strength side.
In a statement, the FFR writes: “Romain Ntamack was hit in the left knee and had to leave the field. Imaging performed this morning diagnosed a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament. Consequently, Romain Ntamack will be forfeited for the World Cup.”
New Zealand have now firmed as favourites with many betting agencies including at home with the New Zealand TAB at $3.50 as outright winners.
France are second while Ireland are third despite being the world's number one ranked side.
It is a similar pattern with UK's Bet365, Betfair, Skybet and Paddy Power all installing New Zealand as favourites.
Malta-based Unibet, BetUK and SportingIndex were the only bookmakers to have New Zealand and France as equal favourites.
The defending champions South Africa are ranked fourth.
France have two warm-up matches remaining, against Fiji and Australia, and now have to decide whether to rest other stars like Antoine Dupont to avoid catastrophe before the home Rugby World Cup.
New Zealand play just one game against South Africa at Twickenham in two weeks while Ireland have matches against England and Samoa.
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All of these media pundits always miss the obvious whenever they analyse what is ailing or assisting the game. Rugby always has contentious points for debate when picking apart individual games and finding fault with itself. All this focus and scrutiny on “speeding up the game”, “high ball in play” etc is all contextual to the fan. As a tv viewer, if you’re absorbed into a game, regardless if your team is playing or not, more ball in play time and action are all byproducts of the contest. A good contest subliminally affects your memory in selectively remembering all the good aspects. A poor contest and your brain has switched off because its a blowout and the result is never in doubt or it’s a real chore to watch and remain engaged throughout. The URC, Top 14 and English premiership are all competitions that feel like there’s real jeopardy each week. The dominance of Super rugby by NZ teams was unhealthy from a sustainable interest perspective. You can’t fault those teams or the players, but the lack of competitions won by SA and Australian teams long term was always going to test the faith and patience of die-hard and casual fans from those regions. SANZAR took their eye off the fans and fans voted with their feet and subscriptions. They were so concerned about expanding their product they forgot the golden rule about broadcasting live sport. Viewers tune in more when there’s an atmosphere and a true contest. You need to fill stadiums to create one, host unions need to do more to service ticket buyers, and this year proves the other, there’s more interest in Super rugby this year only because more games are competitive with less foregone conclusions. All these micro statistics bandied about, only interest the bean counters and trainspotters.
Go to commentsIt’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
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