Weekend betting tips: England hopefuls will be looking to earn their spurs

Front man: Harry Kane leads a strong Tottenham contingent in the England team
Getty
Alex Constantinou13 November 2015

After qualifying for Euro 2016 from an easy group, England’s credentials will be tested more severely in four prestige friendlies in the run-up to the finals.

The first of those is tonight against Spain before England face France on Tuesday night and Tottenham fans, in particular, will be watching those two games with interest after Harry Kane, Kyle Walker, Eric Dier and Dele Alli were named in Roy Hodgson’s squad for the double-header. Of those four, Dier is uncapped while Alli has earned just two caps and they are 9-2 and 7-2 respectively to make the squad for the Euro finals.

Another fringe player desperate for a chance to stake his claim is Stoke goalkeeper Jack Butland, who is 12-1 to make more saves than Joe Hart in the two friendlies during the break. England, who are unbeaten in 15 games since the 2014 World Cup, are 39-10 to win in Alicante, while the hosts are 3-4 to prevail and the draw is 5-2.

Murphy can cause damage in smash-and-grab raid

Daryl Murphy could hardly have picked a better time to score his first goals of the season.

The Ipswich striker broke his duck with a hat-trick against Rotherham and now looks likely to lead the line for the Republic of Ireland tonight in the first leg of their Euro 2016 play-off against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

With Shane Long out with an ankle injury and Jonathan Walters suspended, Murphy is set to make only his fourth start for his country and is well worth a punt at 4-1 to score at any time.

It could be a smash-and-grab raid for Ireland, who are 12-1 to win the first leg and have less than 30 per cent possession in the game.

Looking ahead to the Euro finals, Germany are the 10-3 favourites.

England trade at 23-2, ahead of Italy (17-1), Portugal and Croatia (both 25-1).

Wales are 70-1, the Republic of Ireland can be backed at 155-1 and it’s 255-1 for Northern Ireland.

The RFU should go from Lancaster to a Yorkshireman

The Rugby Football Union said they would begin a “global search” for a coach after they parted company with Stuart Lancaster but the most suitable candidate could be under their noses.

Following the announcement, former South Africa coach Jake White, who masterminded their World Cup Final win over England in 2007, was installed as the 7-2 favourite. He’s now down to 5-4 after declaring his interest. Eddie Jones (6-1), Conor O’Shea (10-1), Michael Cheika (10-1) and Vern Cotter (14-1) were also at the top of the market for the new England coach as bookmakers took note of the RFU’s comments.

Yorkshireman Jim Mallinder, who led Northampton to the Aviva Premiership title 2013-14, is our pick at 9-1. The former coach of the England Saxons has already made strong noises about succeeding Lancaster.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in