Aviva Premiership: Tigers face toughest test first

Guinness Premiership / Geoffrey Riddle / 04 September 2010 / Leave a comment Free £25 Bet View Market

"Leicester lost their opener 12 months ago and at current best price of [2.2] on the high street they make little appeal."

Reigning champions Leicester face their most fearsome road challenge of the season this Sunday as they try to deny Northampton at Franklin's Gardens in front of the Sky cameras. Geoffrey Riddle selects the open round best bets.

Only Saracens were good enough last season to dislodge the Saints on their own turf and the likes of Munster and Perpignan failed in the East Midlands.

Sarries travelled to Northampton twice inside a month at the end of last season and beat the Saints in the penultimate round, as well as the semi-final. The ingredients to their success was uncompromising defence mixed with real steel and devil, all well within the capabilities of Richard Cockerill's Leicester.

Leicester, however, lost at Sale on the opening day of the season 12 months ago and at current best price of [2.2] on the high street they make little appeal. Whoever home coach Jim Mallinder chooses in his pack, Leicester cannot count on forward supremacy and with home advantage factored in it is a surprise that Northampton are not as short as [1.6].

As a result, the trialled 50-25-25 wager that I put forward last season, where you back a team with 50 per cent of your stake in the match betting market and split the rest on the handicap and winning margin -12.5 points looks the best way of investing in the Saints.

Those of you who have been savvy enough to get ESPN will benefit from the live feed from Twickenham on Saturday which sees the four London sides clash. Like last season, Wasps take on Harlequins, while Saracens face-off with London Irish.

Although I have backed Saracens in the outright market, I'm not sure they should be as short as [1.57] against a London Irish side that were harried by injury last season. Try-scoring machines Adam Thompstone, Sailosi Tagicakibau, Delon Armitage and Topsy Ojo were injured to varying degrees last season which saw the Exiles slump to sixth, having finished third in 2008-09.

Irish's all-out brand of rugby is ideally suited to the new tackle laws and now that coach Toby Booth can call on all four of his flying backs, Saracens may have to expend a lot of their energy on defence. Although total points have not been chalked up on Betfair yet, I'd be looking to get short at anything down to around 41.5.

This is always a fiercely contested fixture, with five of the last six encounters resulting in a winning margin of less than seven points. If London Irish trade any bigger than [2.4] before kick-off, therefore, I think that is an excellent level at which to build up a position to be trading in-running.

Tags: Toby Flood in action for Leicester