Rugby Betting Odds & Lines

Overview

One origin story of the sport of rugby claims that a school named Rugby a soccer player  – known as a footballer in England, where this story is alleged to have happened – decided to pick up the ball and run with it. As fun as this story is, it’s also likely to be false, like many sports origin stories. 

Although we do know that rugby did evolve from soccer, as did American football, and the close relationship between the two contact sports is easy to spot.

You score touchdowns and have a goal line in football, and in rugby you score once the ball is touched down beyond the goal line. The ball is kicked through the goalposts for extra points following both a touchdown or a try. The ball is oblong in both, players make tackles in both sports, each sport has handoffs, and possession can change with punts or a turnover on downs (reaching the tackle limit in rugby league).

If you are a fan of American football, you would love rugby. And if you are a fan of rugby, you should watch American football.

Biggest Rugby Matches of the Year

One of the great differences between rugby and football is that rugby is played all across the world, and on several continents it’s one of the most popular sports to play, watch, and bet.

Each year the six nations of Italy, France, Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales play the Six Nations Championship. This tournament actually traces its roots back to the Home Nations Championship, which began in 1883 and was the first ever international rugby union tournament. France was added in 1910, making iy the Five Nations, and Italy was added in 1999.

Each team plays every other team once, making for a total of 15 tournament matches.

Rugby World Cup

Six Nations is the best annual rugby event for watching and betting, but every four years we get the Rugby World Cup, which features the 20 best national teams from around the world.

Instead of just the best six teams in Europe, we get the powerful South African team, the All Blacks from New Zealand, Oceania powers Fiji and Samoa, and the top teams from South America, Argentina and Uruguay.

The 20 teams are split into four pools of five teams each, called bands. Each pool is a single round-robin of 10 games, with the top two teams in each pool advancing to the quarterfinals. The top three teams in each pool automatically qualify for the next World Cup.

By the time the World Cup has crowned a champion and awarded the third place team, a total of 48 rugby matches have been played, and all 48 offer great wagering.

The Different Types of Rugby

In your quest to bet on rugby you will notice that there are two different main types of rugby: rugby union and rugby league.

Rugby union consists of 15 players a side and the possession time for one side is unlimited. As long as all passes and runs are legal, and the ball is maintained during tackles, the attacking team maintains possession of the ball.

In rugby league there are only 13 players a side, which generally makes the game more fast paced. There is also a time of possession limit of six tackles. After that possession of the ball is turned over. Also in rugby league there are no rucks, mauls, or line-outs.

Rugby union is the most popular rugby, and it’s the form of rugby played in the Six Nations, the World Cup, and most of the top professional leagues in the world.

Rugby sevens is another type of rugby that has just seven players per side. It was first contested in the Summer Olympics in 2016, and has gained steadily in popularity since.

Before betting on any rugby match, make sure you know which type you’re betting on. It’s like placing a baseball bet, but instead the game is softball. They mostly look the same, but strategies in betting are very different.

Once you have confirmed the type of rugby you want to wager, then it is time to choose a wager type.

Moneyline

The simplest and most common rugby bet is a moneyline bet on the winner. Odds on the favorite pay less money, and odds on the underdog pay more. As with all other sports, a moneyline bet works the same for rugby union and rugby league.

Handicap

Handicap betting in rugby works like a point spread in football and basketball, and it’s a good way to get more bang for your buck when betting on favorites. Instead of taking a team that only pays 50 cents on the dollar when it wins on the moneyline, you can take the handicap on that team. That means that they must win by that handicap amount, or more, in order for the bet to win.

A bet on a team with a positive handicap means that team can lose by up to the amount of the handicap (or point spread), and your bet still wins.

Totals Betting

Like with the handicap and point spreads, a totals line in rugby works just like a totals line in other sports. The number of the totals bet represents the combined score of both teams, and then you bet if the total will go over or under the line. As you can guess, the totals line for rugby league tends to be higher than for rugby union.

Unique Rugby Bets:

Accumulators

One of the more unique types of bets that you can place on rugby is called an accumulator. It works like this:

You bet on a match and win, and the winnings from that first bet are added to the original stakes of a second bet. If the second bet wins, those winnings are added to a third bet, and on and on it goes, until it reaches five, known as a fivefold. From there the bet becomes a permutation, which actually allows for one of your bets to lose.

Halftime and Fulltime

Both rugby union and rugby league are played with two 40-minute halves, and you can place bets on which team will lead either half. These are two separate bets, and different from what is called a halftime/fulltime bet, which is a combination bet in which you choose which team will be leading at halftime, and who will be leading at fulltime. 

You can bet on the same team to lead both halves, or a combination of both teams.

Try Scorer Proposition Bets

Rugby offers a number of proposition bets, but the most popular are the array of bets involving try scorers. You can bet on which individuals will score trys, who scores the most trys, who scores the first try, and who scores the last try.

There are also team props involving first try, most trys, and over/under bets on the number of total trys scored by one team or both.

Rugby Betting Strategies

One of the most important things to do when researching your rugby bets is to keep recent scores in context. A lot of points scored in the previous match may be a sign of good form, or it may just be a sign that the previous opponent was bad. Or points were scored late to make the final look more lopsided than the match actually was.

Don’t just know how the teams you’re evaluating did. Know about their opponents too, so the picture you form with your betting is complete.

As with other sports, some teams match up better with other teams, and specific types of bet. Know and understand the tactics and style of each team before placing any bets. If a team specializes in defensive kicks, don’t bet them to score a lot of trys. If one team is fast on the outside, and the other team has more size on the outside, understand how that is going to change the final score.

Other things that you must consider before placing your rugby bets include the weather. Wet and windy means kicking will be hard, and passing can be off. The referee can also have an influence on the outcome, depending on how strict he plans to call things against a physical team. Also know which teams perform better at home, and which teams do well on the toad.