The IRB Junior World Cup has been an unexpected bonus for punters during the Super Rugby break.

From the first round it was clear that punters were enjoying the challenge of researching matches featuring players and teams that they – along with the bookies – often knew little about.

In round two, Sean Nicholas highlighted the +42 about Wales versus New Zealand (the Baby Blacks) as a cracking bet. He had a number of reasons but the fact that the weather was poor in Cape Town, coupled with the game being played on a Stellenbosch pitch that had looked like cutting up in round one, were foremost in his reasoning.

Even he could not have imagined that not only would Wales beat the handicap, but they would win the match taking advantage of the fact that New Zealand could not make use of their pace and skill on a field that would have been more suited to mud wrestling.

The handicap admittedly fell ahead of kick-off when it became apparent just how bad things were, but New Zealand still started 32 point favourites – a line that was never ever threatened.

I cannot recall ever seeing a 30 point favourite rolled and I suspect we may have witnessed one of the biggest upsets ever in betting terms – perhaps even a world record – albeit the conditions were almost solely responsible.

While punters were able to take advantage of the poor weather in the rugby, conditions also played a hand in the men’s French Open tennis final between Nadal and Djokovic  – and here I just got lucky.  My punt on the match was Nadal to win three sets to one; and as he raced through the first two sets, a 3-0 outcome looked likely.

With light rain falling the court got heavier allowing Djokovic to dominate, taking the third set and the fourth seemed to be going the same way when conditions got so bad the match was postponed.

This allowed Nadal to regroup and return in conditions better suited to his game and he duly won the fourth set to land my bet.

Brent Graham is a sports betting blogger at www.goodforthegame.co.za and to get on his free weekly e-mail list just send a message to brent@goodforthegame.co.za titled Best Bets.