Australia v Argentina
Rugby Championship – 10.45 am
Sky Sports
The second round of the 2019 Rugby Championship swings into action on Saturday. In last year’s tournament, there was a surprise result in this corresponding fixture. The Pumas of Argentina raided the Gold Coast for a shock win over Australia. Can they pull off a repeat? The top bookies have them as 8/5 underdogs, but with the way they played last weekend against New Zealand, can they be written off? The Pumas had the All Blacks rattled in Buenos Aires, not conceding any points against the World Champions in the second half of the match. In the end Argentina fell just short 16-20.
Australia lost their opening game, a trip to Johannesburg to face South Africa. They had their moments in the game, but their defence just kept leaking the tries, conceding five of them in the fixture. That was a tough opener for them and after what was a miserable 2018 calendar year, the Wallabies badly need a lift in this World Cup year. The pressure is on them for this scrap in Brisbane, for which they are 4/7 odds-on. They struggled to handle the physical Pumas last year at home, will the memories of that painful loss spur them on to better things?
Glen Durrant v Michael Smith
World Championship Darts – 7.15 pm
Sky Sports
What a tournament Glen Durrant has come up with at the Winter Gardens. Duzza has been integrating himself well on the PDC this year after jumping ship from the BDO. For his first attempt at the World Matchplay, he hasn’t look out of place. So far Duzza has taken down two former World Champions and a former World Matchplay title winner in this campaign. One more win on Saturday will put him through to the final.
Durrant took out Adrian Lewis in comprehensive fashion in the first round, not too unexpected though with former World Champion Lewis out of form. But then he was up against the best in the business, Michael van Gerwen, current World Number One. Durrant was the underdog for the battle but showed that he belongs in the PDC with a 13-11 shock upset. It was then a 16-7 win over former world Matchplay winner James Wade. That is three seeds down and now Durrant takes on another one in Smith.
Durrant is 8/11 odds-on with leading bookmakers to win, and the way he’s playing, he will have plenty of support as one of the best bets of the day. But Smith is motoring along at the Winter Gardens too. He has had a much easier draw, not having faced a seeded player yet. But despite taking on weaker opposition, Smith hasn’t let his scoring drop. That’s impressive. Smith beats everyone else left in the draw for 140+ scores. He’s 11/10 with top bookies to stop the hot run of Duzza.
Rob Cross v Daryl Gurney
World Championship Darts – 9:15 pm
Sky Sports
Former World Champion Rob Cross is looking in fine fettle at the moment. He has eased his way through the challenges at the Winter Gardens. With such positive from behind him in 2019, being a losing finalist at the UK open and the Premier League of Darts, Voltage has been electric in Blackpool as well. Cross dropped just eight legs across his first two matches. He had a bigger challenge in his quarter-final against Stephen Bunting but took care of business. Twice in three matches at the tournament has had taken a three dart average of over 100 and he’s 8/15 favourite with leading bookies.
Daryl Gurney defied his underdog status in the quarter-finals against front-runner Peter Wright. Wright had been in astonishing form and had beaten Gurney in their last meeting. But Northern Ireland’s SuperChin would have his day with a 16-13 win in a wonderful match, which had phenomenal scoring. Gurney has struggled a little bit with his checkouts at this tournament and he has now been through three very long gruelling matches. Of the four remaining players, he has the lowest checkout success at just 30%. But he got it together much better against Wright and is 6/4 to win as an underdog again.
