RUGBY LEAGUE BETTING PREVIEW - NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS VS PARRAMATTA EELS

Rugby League

2024-08-02 - New Zealand Warriors vs Parramatta Eels

A Sports Betting Preview by Stu

New Zealand Warriors v Parramatta Eels
Rugby League : Australia : NRL Season 2024
Friday 2nd August 2024 - KO 1800 AEST

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New Zealand Warriors

New Zealand are still clinging on to slim hopes of making the finals after winning last weekend which broke a 2 match losing streak.

The victory pushed the Warriors up to 12th on an 8-1-10 record but still at least 2 victories out of the top 8 and at least 4 teams are fighting for that spot. The Warriors have just 5 matches left in their season with a bye and a guaranteed 2 points in the final round and would likely need to win at least 4 of those.

New Zealand Warriors managed a solid victory against the last placed Tigers at home in their round 21 match last weekend. Scoring the first 3 tries and keeping the Tigers scoreless in the first half was a good start, which led to 14-0 at the break.

Wests started well in the second half, scoring 10 points, however the Warriors were never being headed in the match, running away with it in the end, a late try to the Tigers making the match look closer than it was, 28-16 final score.

New Zealand Warriors Team News - Some big inclusions for New Zealand, as Shaun Johnson and Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad return from injury and slot back into their preferred positions. Roger Tuivasa-Sheck moves to the wing and Tom Ale comes onto the bench.

Parramatta Eels

Parramatta Eels have had a season to forget, winning just 4 matches all season for an abysmal record of 4-14 placing them second last in 16th, just the Tigers keeping the Eels from claiming the wooden spoon.

Parramatta have won 1 match in their last 10 outings, a 12 point win at home over the Sharks during the Origin period. Clearly Parra have no chance of playing post season and look set for a major overall in personnel over the off season and beyond.

The Eels faced an almighty challenge in the last round when the welcomed the Storm to their home ground, CommBank stadium. The Eels held the lead twice in the match, once by scoring first to take a 4-0 lead and then soon after the Storm scored, the Eels managed the second of their 3 tries in the match to lead 8-6.

That’s really the only good news from their perspective in this match, Melbourne winning easily in the end even though they were well below their best, 14-32 final score.

Parramatta Eels Team News - No changes to the team from last weekend – Parramatta have many injuries so this is the best team they can put together.

Odds

Warriors are rightly well ahead in the betting, $1.21 to $4.50, the line is 13.5 points and combined points 49.5

The Betting Verdict

The warriors managed a big victory away to the Eels in their last meeting, late 2023 winning by a huge margin of 36 points, 10-46. This broke a 4-match streak for the Eels, dating back to 2019. 42 matches have been played previously between these 2 teams, Parramatta led the overall meetings 17-25 but do not appear to enjoy the trip to New Zealand winning just 6 times at this venue from 17 attempts, while the Warriors hold a 57% winning record at home.

Parramatta are in the midst of an injury crisis and have a number of key players out which make their chances of winning away from home extremely low. This is also the first time the Eels have travelled to Go Media stadium since 2017, New Zealand won that fixture 22-10.

New Zealand managed to get past the 17th placed team last weekend and given the injuries are probably facing an even weaker prospect in this fixture with the Eels placed 16th. The return of Nicoll-Klokstad and Johnson is a welcome boost at the right end of the season too but have they left their run too late with some difficult fixtures ahead? The Warriors need to overcome the Dolphins, Sea Eagles and Sharks away from home to possibly make the finals, a very tough ask.

New Zealand are obvious favourites here and should win comfortably come fulltime in this one. The line is set at 13.5 points, meaning more than 2 converted tries which is certainly doable given the Eels form and injuries woes.

Other potential good returns are the Warriors wingers being anytime try scorers, returning $1.55 for DWZ and $1.72 for RTS, both of whom will likely cross for a try or more. If you aren’t convinced on a huge victory, even leading HT and FT for NZ returns $1.50.

I think that the Warriors win by 20 points – this match may also stay under the 50 point threshold as I don’t think the Eels will contribute many points.

The Pick :

New Zealand Warriors 30-10 Parramatta Eels

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take a como of the Warriors to lead HT and FT combined with Watene-Zelezniak to score anytime returning a nice $2.36 price at Bet365