Japan v Samoa betting tips, odds, predictions – RWC 2019 Match 26

Welcome to our free predictions and odds update for match 26 of the Rugby World Cup between Japan and Samoa at City of Toyota Stadium on October 5.
Japan are at extremely short odds to win here and put themselves in great shape to advance to the quarter-finals of the World Cup for the first time.
That in itself throws up a challenge; they can no longer wrap themselves in the underdogs tag. They are expected to win and they need to win here against the unpredictable Pacific Islanders.
Overall Samoa has a winning record against the Japanese, but Japan have dominated the most recent clashes, though even those date back to 2015 and prior.
Samoa were poor against Scotland and must improve their discipline. Four yellow cards in two matches has not helped their cause.

Check out our team previews to get the latest form, our tips for leading try-scorer from each team and where we think they will finish in the tournament.

Japan
Samoa

Here are our Japan v Samoa predictions and odds for their clash at the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.

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Rugby World Cup Match 26: Pool A – Japan v Samoa

Kick-off: 7.30pm local time (GMT +9)
Venue: City of Toyota Stadium

Japan v Samoa odds

Head to head odds: Japan $1.07, Samoa $8.40
Handicap line odds: Japan (-19.5 points) $1.91, Samoa
(+19.5 points) $1.91

Previous World Cup 2019 matches:

Japan:
Japan 30 (Kotaro Matsushima 3, Pieter Labuschagne tries; Rikiya Matsuda, Yu Tamura con, Tamura 2 pens) d Russia 10 (Kirill Golosnitskiy try; Yuri Kushnarev con, pen). Referee: Nigel Owens.
Japan 19 (Kenki Fukuoka try; Yu Tamura con, 4 pens) d Ireland 12 (Rob Kearney, Garry Ringrose tries; Jack Carty con). Referee: Angus Gardner.

Samoa:
Samoa 34 (Ed Fidow 2, Alapati Leiua 2, Afaesetiti Amosa, Reynold Lee-Lo tries; Tusi Pisi 2 cons) d Russia 9 (Yuri Kushnarev 2 pens, drop goal). Referee: Romain Poite.
Scotland 34 (2 penalty tries, Greig Laidlaw, Sean Maitland tries; Laidlaw 2 cons, pen, Stuart Hogg drop goal) d Samoa 0. Referee: Pascal Gauzere.

Japan v Samoa tips RWC2019

Samoa +19.5 points at $1.91

The Samoans will be disappointed with their dismal showing last time out and will throw everything at this in a last-ditch and unlikely bid to get into the quarters. We expect a much better showing in attack.

Japan by 1-12 points at $3.60

We expect Japan’s newly unveiled and impressive grit in defence to go a long way to giving them a narrow win here.

Japan v Samoa prediction

We are tipping Japan to win a close game, which would mean if Ireland beat Scotland they would then be through to the next round, regardless of whether they beat the Scots in their final group game. They can’t afford any slip-ups though. This will be a great contest to watch for the neutral.

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