The Rugby League World Cup continues on Sunday with a triple header of action as we see the opening matches in Groups B and C conclude on what should be another excellent day to showcase the sport.
England and Australia got off to emphatic winning starts on Saturday and on Sunday it will be the turn of New Zealand to follow suit. They are on show as are Scotland and Ireland who will each be looking to open up their campaign with a win.
Scotland vs Italy (14.30 – BBC Two)
Venue: Kingston Park
The opening match of the day sees the second game in Group B taking place as Scotland will look to open up what is effectively a home World Cup for them with a win when they take on Italy, who will look to be competitive despite having a completely different squad to the one they had four years ago.
Scotland will know that if they are going to come out of this group then they have to win this match to ensure their clash with Fiji later in the tournament is a decisive one. Any win will do for them and they are being asked to cover around a 10 point handicap. They have a nice mix of NRL and Super League players and if they blend from the off they should be too good for an Italy team who are unable to call upon the services of the likes of James Tedesco. I would imagine Italy will start off competitive and then fade away but given how much pressure is on Scotland here I can afford to just watch this rather than ask them to cover two scores.
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Jamaica vs Ireland (17.00 – BBC Two)
Venue: Headingley
The middle match of the day sees one of the tournament debutants entering the fray when Jamaica go up against a talented looking Ireland side in what is the opening game of a potentially competitive Group C.
Jamaica are probably going to be exposed in this section but the other three teams all carry plenty of quality in the key areas so this will be a group to watch as we go along. Ireland look much stronger than Jamaica here. There are a couple of Super League players in the Jamaica squad and while they will all be proud to be representing their country, the rest of it are all part-time and against an Ireland team that will contain the likes of Ritchie Myler, Luke Keary, James Bentley, Toby King and George King among others, I expect Jamaica to come up a long way short. I suspect this match will follow a similar pattern to the two on Saturday in that Jamaica will be competitive to start with but the longer the match goes fatigue will set in and the better team will start to run riot. That should see Ireland cover a 34 point handicap in this one.
New Zealand vs Lebanon (19.30 – BBC Red Button)
Venue: Halliwell Jones Stadium
The final match of the second day of the competition sees the former champions New Zealand opening up their campaign when they take on a Lebanon side who will be out to show they are anything but making up the numbers here.
To be fair to Lebanon, they have a decent half-back pairing and one or two others who are more than legitimate at this level but whether they have enough to stop a New Zealand juggernaut which can be pretty brutal when it gets on a roll is another thing entirely. Unlike some sides we’ve seen in this tournament already, New Zealand have had a hit out on this tour so you would imagine that they will have ironed out the wrinkles in their setup. Lebanon had a solid win over Wales in a warm up game ahead of the tournament and that should have tightened them up for this one so this might be more competitive than a 42 point handicap would suggest. If pushed I would just side with New Zealand to cover but there is nowhere near enough wiggle room for me to back it.
Tips
Back Ireland (-34) to beat Jamaica for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Coral
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