RLWC Australia v Italy betting tips & best odds – 30/10/2022

The 2022 Rugby League World Cup continues this Sunday (5:30am AEDT) with the Australian Kangaroos taking on Italy in St Helens.

The Roos and head coach Mal Meninga are continuing to use their pool matches against lower-ranked sides to formulate Australia’s best 17 for the finals. Throughout their formulating, the Kangaroos have registered a big win over Fiji and an even bigger one over Scotland. Will they keep improving when they take on Italy?

Meninga has decided to rest Angus Crichton, Harry Grant, Jake Trbojevic and superstar tryscorer Josh Addo-Carr for the clash against Italy, calling in Murray Taulagi, Cameron Murray, Reuben Cotter and Tino Fa’asuamaleaui to the starting side. In another huge call, Meninga has rested Cameron Munster in favour of Daly Cherry-Evans, who will play in the halves with Nathan Cleary as the pair duel it out for the halfback jersey come the finals.

This battle in the halves has every chance of slightly derailing the Kangaroos’ attacking ability, taking away from the side’s cohesion and fluency. However, they are a side stacked with ability and NRL talent that simply knows how to pile on points. Australia will go on to win this match convincingly.

It remains unclear exactly which side the halves for Australia will play on; however, Cherry-Evans has played on the left previously, which will likely mean Cleary stays on the right-hand side of the ruck. Should he do this, he will be paired with Jack Wighton in the outside backs, who scored a double in an absolute day out against Scotland. Wighton will almost certainly score two or more tries again, paying $3.05 with BetOnline.

Murray Taulagi returns to the wing for Australia having played against Fiji and failed to register a try. Should Cherry-Evans line up on the left with Taulagi on the wing, he will surely be the target of both long cut-outs and cross-field kicks as the climaxes of set plays by Australia. The Kangaroos will be expected to have plenty of football inside Italy’s 20m line, and should that be the case, Taulagi is capable of scoring two or more tries at $1.96.

Key matchup: Isaah Yeo vs Nathan Brown

The clash of these two locks will be brilliant to watch, as it would seem the Italian captain, Nathan Brown, has done his homework on his opposing lock. In Italy’s win over Scotland, Brown played a similar role to Isaah Yeo where he is as much a ball-carrying forward as he is a ball-playing one. Yeo has become the master of the ball-playing lock in recent years in his role at the Panthers and has been a key figure in their back-to-back premiership wins. If Italy are to have any chance of keeping up with the Aussies, Brown will need to be the perfect combination of a link between his halves and outside backs, as well as the aggressive workhorse who leads the forward pack.

RLWC Australia vs Italy match prediction

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