St George Illawarra have been heavily bet from big outsiders to pick ’em against New Zealand on the Sunshine Coast and the money looks to be spot on.
Best Bet
St George Illawarra ($1.85)
The Dragons have been severely underrated heading into this year and that became widely evident when they touched up South Sydney in the Charity Shield. Anthony Griffin has hardly recruited a premiership winning team but he has done two things well: he has cleared the decks to give his top young talent clear air and he has recruited some hard veterans to support them. This is not a wooden spoon team.
It has been an uninspiring preseason from the Warriors, which should be of no surprise considering the abhorrent coaching hire last year. The big news is that Roger Tuivasa-Sheck is out and that is a massive blow and one that has clearly not been replaced.
The Dragons have dominated this matchup with five wins in the last six. They also aren’t missing arguably their two best players as the Warriors are with Reece Walsh suspended and Tohu Harris hurt. The Dragons have been backed from $2.50 to $1.85 and it looks like they will start significantly shorter.
Same Game Multi
St George Illawarra Win/Under 47.5/Tyrell Sloan Try ($6.50)
The Dragons are one of the better bets this week.
The under also looks a strong play with nine of the last 11 meetings between the two teams failing to break 38 with the average between these teams a lowly 36.0. The under has hit in 10 of 11 Warriors night/twilight games.
Tyrell Sloan has crossed in every NRL game he has played, scoring six tries in five career matches.
Value Bet
Talatau Amone Try ($4.50)
Livewire five-eighth Talatau Amone has some of the fastest feet in the NRL and is set for a big season after locking down the No.6 jersey. He has three tries in 11 games but has just four starts. It is not hard to envisage him causing all kinds of headaches for the awful Warriors three-quarter line.
