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Tri Nations Betting Preview: New Zealand odds on favourites for the title

The 2011 Tri Nations tournament gets underway this weekend and defending champions New Zealand are unsurprisingly big favourites in the betting to win the title again. The All Blacks won it in some style last year and they are 4/9 on to do so again according to Bet 365 bookmakers ahead of the tournament with Australia and South Africa.

It could be the last year of the Tri Nations with Argentina possibly joining the three giants of Southern hemisphere rugby next year to form a four nations tournament. For now though the three usual suspects will do battle as they look to step up their preparations for the World Cup in New Zealand in October.

New Zealand will once again have to shake off their 'bottlers' tag in the World Cup but they have had little trouble in dominating this Tri Nations format. The All Blacks have won the tournament ten times and on seven occasions in the past nine years, including last year when they completed a remarkable whitewash by winning every single match.

The format this year is slightly different as the teams will only play one another twice to help the sides prepare properly for the World Cup and New Zealand are very much the team to beat. Graham Henry's men racked up 184 points in last year's tournament and they can lay claim to the Tri Nations leading points scorer in Dan Carter (363 points) and the second leading tryscorer in Joe Rokocoko (15 tries).

They start their preparations with a warm up against Fiji, a team that have lost by 50 points or more in every meeting with the All Blacks so far, on Friday and they will take some beating this summer.

Australia are second favourites for the tournament at 5/2 with Bet365.com but they look to face a huge task to overcome the New Zealanders. Robbie Dean's side were stunned last weekend as they lost 32-23 to Samoa and a similar display in any of the matches this summer could result in outright humiliation. Will Genia will be a key man for them after he won the Australian Super Rugby Player of the Year award, although he and his teammates have plenty of work to do if they are to win the Tri Nations title for the first time since 2001.

The Australians open their campaign against South Africa in Sydney on Saturday and the Wallabies are 3/10 favourites to win the match, with a depleted South Africa priced 5/2.

Peter de Villiers' physical South African side reportedly have 23 players out injured, although there have been rumours from outside of the squad that many of them are being rested for the World Cup. Even so they look to face a big task to finish with anything other than the wooden spoon this year and it doesn't seem impossible that they could fail to win a single match, with Bet 365 going 8/1 on their chances.

Tri Nations Outright Winner Betting

4/9 New Zealand
5/2 Australia
8/1 South Africa

All odds are supplied courtesy of Bet365.com, who provide several other betting markets, including live betting in-running, for all matches at the 2011 Tri Nations.

Posted: Thursday, 21st July 2011
Author: Chris James
Tags: tri nations, new zealand, south africa, australia, bet365,

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