Strange Predictions readers’ contest: England vs All Blacks, Ireland v Australia

INTERNATIONAL. Here’s another chance to win a great prize in our Strange Predictions* contest hosted by Strange Nature Gin of New Zealand. And we also announce the winner of our latest competition.

This weekend we again turn our attention to men’s rugby with two epic Autumn international matches on Saturday 15 November: the first set to take place at the famous Twickenham stadium between England and the All Blacks of New Zealand; the second, a hard to predict contest between Ireland and the Wallabies of Australia.

We’re asking travel retail and aviation sector sporting pundits to pick the winners and scores of these much-anticipated match-ups.

As with all our Strange Predictions competitions, the winner will receive a bottle of the outstanding Strange Nature Gin, whose spirit base is drawn from Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Strange indeed. 

As reported, Strange Nature was recently named one of the ten 2024 Gins of the Year at the prestigious International Wine & Spirit Competition.

Here are the prediction challenges:

• Pick the winner of each match (or a draw): England vs All Blacks; Ireland vs Wallabies
• Pick the scoreline for each match
• Dermot Davitt is a passionate All Blacks support. True or false.

Rules:

• • Only entries from bona-fide members of the travel retail and aviation community will be accepted.
  • The winner will be judged first on correctly predicting the result (win/loss/draw) in each match after which those qualifying will be assessed on cumulative points differential for each game. So if, say, the All Blacks pummel England (as they will, writes Martin Moodie) 31-19 and you predicted the All Blacks to win 25-24, you would have a points differential of 11. Similarly if you picked Ireland to pummel the Wallabies (as they will, writes Dermot Davitt) 35-13 and they win 26-19, you would have a points differential of 15.
  • Only entries from bona-fide members of the travel retail and aviation community will be accepted.
  • Judge’s decision is final.

Send your estimate to: Martin@MoodieDavittReport.com headed ‘Strange Predictions – Autumn Series’ before kick-off of the first match (England vs All Blacks, 15:10 GMT) on Saturday 15 November.

And the winner is…

Last time out we asked contestants to predict the results of two rugby matches

• Scotland vs the All Blacks and France vs South Africa (the Springboks)
• The scores were: Scotland 17 – All Blacks 25; and France 17 – Springboks 32

Our winner, with the best prediction in any of our sporting contests down the years, was Scotsman, WHSmith North America Chief Development Officer Roderick I. McOwan, who – can you believe it? – had just an 8 point differential across the four games.

Roderick picked the All Blacks to triumph over Scotland 24-16 (“much as my Scottish heart desires a different outcome”) and South Africa to beat Les Bleus 30-21.

But, boy, it was a close-run thing. Irishman John Reynolds, Senior Operations Manager at new Saudi Arabian travel retail powerhouse Al Waha Duty Free picked the exact All Blacks (25) vs Scotland (17) scoreline and was just one point away in opting for the Springboks to run up a winning 31 points score.

So far, so very, very good. But John plumped for France to lose with 27 points, a differential of 10 points, giving him a total deficit of 11. Wow, John, so near yet so far away. Punditry sure is tough in travel retail land.

Congratulations Roderick a fine bottle of Strange Nature will be winging its way to you in Las Vegas soon. ✈