After a busy weekend to open up the Rugby League World Cup, there is just the one match in the tournament on Monday as two more sides begin their campaign as France meet debutant Greece in the second game to take place in Group A.
These two teams know they are the lesser sides in the section so if they want to have any chance of making it through to the quarter final this is a match they can’t afford to lose. That should ensure we see plenty of fight in this one.
Where to watch
All of the matches of this tournament are live on the BBC across all their platforms. This one can be seen on the red button or on the iPlayer.
France
France are regulars at the Rugby League World Cup but we are still waiting for them to make a major impression in the modern era. They have reached the quarter finals in the two tournaments held in the northern hemisphere in this century which will give them some encouragement, as will the success of the Catalans Dragons in recent times. That will bring a little extra pressure on them though so it will be interesting to see how they cope with that.
The French bring with them a mercurial style of rugby and when they are on they are so enjoyable to watch but when they don’t fancy the job they can be exposed pretty easily. The other thing that holds them back a lot more often than it should do is their discipline. They will certainly need to maintain that in their last two games in the group but can show that they have improved in that department in this match.
Greece
Greece are at the World Cup for the first time but when you delve into their story they won’t be here happy to just make up the numbers. They will want to do some damage now that they are here. The sport was banned from being played in their country until just a month ago and yet they still managed to come through and qualify for the tournament and that in itself highlights the fight that is within this squad.
Fight is all well and good, as is passion, but as we saw with Jamaica over the weekend you need quality on top of that and it is that which people will be looking out for at Doncaster. If Greece can play a clean game and stay in touch going into the final quarter they might get a frustrated French side in front of them and that could pay dividends. If that is going to happen they will need to come together as a defensive unit.
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Team News
France have been buoyed by the fact that Samisoni Langi has qualified for the nation and as you would expect the Catalans Dragons centre is straight into a squad which has 13 members from the leading French side in Super League.
Greece have a couple of NRL players in their squad with South Sydney Rabbitohs pair of Lachlan Ilias and Peter Mamouzelos key to the spine of the side. Seven domestic based players are also in the squad for the tournament.
Betting
These two sides both had a warm up match ahead of the tournament which should have allowed them to blow off any cobwebs and build some combinations. I suspect the Greeks needed the combination building exercise more than the French given how many Catalans Dragons players are in the France side. We saw a major shock when Italy beat Ireland on Sunday but I don’t see a repeat of that in this match.
This is all about how many France win by for me and although a 22 point handicap is approaching the high end of where I would want to go when taking them to cover, it isn’t quite there. France always pack a punch in the forward areas but this squad has some real dynamism in their backs and those players can create against a team who failed to beat the Bradford Bulls in their warm up game. I suspect this will follow a similar path to other matches we’ve seen this weekend in that it will be competitive in the early stages but then the fitness and the class of the established side comes through.
Tips
Back France (-22) to beat Greece for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with BetVictor
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