Australia vs England Prediction & Betting Tips

The second test of England's tour to Australia will kick off at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday 9 July at 19h55 local time in Brisbane, and the conditions look perfect for rugby with no chance of rain and no issues with humidity or wind predicted. The first test threw many obstacles Australia's way, starting pre-match when Quade Cooper was sidelined with a series ending calf injury, and followed by injuries to Tom Banks and Allan Alaalatoa within the first 25 minutes. To top it off a red card was shown to Darcy Swain on the half hour mark meaning Australia had to compete with 14 men for the remaining 50 minutes. Even so, they managed to lead by 30-14 with 2 minutes to go and then let in two soft consilation tries for the visitors. This week Australia will be a much stronger outfit, with grunty prop Taniela Tupou back in the starting line-up in front of his home ground fans as he starts regularly for the Reds here in Super Rugby, and Jordan Petaia getting a start after coming on for the injury and scoring two tries last week. Also watch for Hunter Paisami in midfield as he is an explosive runner and solid defender. On the English side things seem to have gone from bad to worse as they have lost both star flanker Tom Curry and winger Johnny May to injury. Eddie Jones responded by bringing Sam Underhill and Tommy Freeman straight into the starting line-up, notwithstanding the fact that Freeman plays at fullback for his club. In other changes Joe Marchant in midfield has been dropped for Guy Porter and Jack van Poortfliet, his club's 3rd choice scrumhalf, are also thrown straight into the starting position, ignoring the lively Henry Arundell who came on in the first test with 7 to go, and sparked two tries in the last two minutes, and he will once again have to play from the bench. Eddie seems to have lost the plot completely with these changes, and furthermore he is digging his heels into his decision to play both Marcus Smith and ex-captain Owen Farrell in the 10-12 slots, a decision which has been heavily critised and has shown not to bear fruit on the field. The axing of Farrell's captaincy has question marks around it too. Australia to win comfortably, a full 10 units on the available -2.5.