New Zealand will be hosting the rugby union World Cup in autumn with the final taking place on 23rd October and there will be a flurry of betting excitement surrounding the quadrennial event with all the home nations in action, as well as the power houses of the southern hemisphere: Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

The 2011 Rugby World Cup kicks off on September 9th and with over one million tickets sold and worldwide television rights in place it promises to be one of the biggest sporting events ever seen.

Although football rules the roost when it comes to sports betting, any World Cup be it cricket, rugby league or rugby union, always results in a huge amount of interest from the betting public, especially when England are involved and in with a chance of winning.

European rugby’s premier trophy is the Heineken Cup – rugby’s equivalent of football’s Champions League and it is competed for every year by teams from Europe’s leading rugby-playing Nations.

With all four British Isles nations heavily involved, UK and Irish early betting tends to be heavy for every match way in advance so that’s why we’ll take a very early look at the 2012 chances, based on the Pool draw.

Rugby’s famous Tri-Nations tournament between Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, starts in July and, once again, betting is sure to be frantic for all 6 big matches.

Whilst European betting fans can get excited about the 6 Nations tournament with all its long history, pomp and ceremony helping to conjure up some rather unusual odds, bets and predictions, it’s the Tri-Nations each year which provides the quality rugby.

Dates for this year’s Tri-Nations Rugby games are: July 23, 2011: Australia v South Africa (Sydney),