The final of the United Rugby Championship will be contested by the Stormers and Munster in Cape Town on Saturday and the defending champions start as the bookmakers favourites
Stormers v Munster, Saturday 27th May, Cape Town, KO 18:30 (South African time)
Referee: Andrea Piardi (Italy)
Assistant referees: Mike Adamson (Scotland), Craig Evans (Wales)
TMO: Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
Weather Forecast – Cape Town
Stormers:
The Stormers are defending champions having beaten the Bulls 18-13 in the final in Cape Town last year and they booked another home final with a 43-25 victory over Connacht in the semi's in Cape Town two weeks ago. They scored 6 of the 10 tries including 2 for Manie Libbok who also added 5 conversions. The Stormers led 24-13 at half time and covered a 14.5 point handicap for punters who took the minus.
The Stormers saw off the Bulls 33-21 in the quarter finals in Cape Town, easily covering a -6.5 point handicap in the process. The try count came in at 3-3 but 18 points from the boot of Libbok saw the Stormers through.
The Stormers finished third on the log at the end of the regular season, 11 points behind Leinster. They won 12, drew 2 and lost 4 of their matches and their only home defeat came in Round 17 when they were edged out 26-24 by their opponents in Saturday's final, Munster.
Munster:
Munster have reached the final the hard way. They were 15.5 point underdogs for their semi final clash away to Leinster but edged a tough contest 16-15 thanks to Jack Crowley's drop goal on 78 minutes.
Munster had booked their semi final ticket with a 14-5 win away to Glasgow Warriors, the Scottish sides only home defeat of the season.
Munster had finished off the regular season in South Africa, ending the Stormers long unbeaten run in Cape Town before drawing with the Sharks in Durban. They finished fifth overall with a record of 10 wins, 1 draw and 7 defeats and they boasted the best defensive record in the tournament in terms of points conceded.
Team News
Stormers: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Angelo Davids, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Dan du Plessis, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Hacjivah Dayimani, 6 Deon Fourie, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Ruben van Heerden, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Steven Kitshoff (captain).
Replacements: 16 JJ Kotze, 17 Alistair Vermaak, 18 Neethling Fouche, 19 Ben-Jason Dixon, 20 Willie Engelbrecht, 21 Marcel Theunissen, 22 Paul de Wet, 23 Clayton Blommetjies
Munster: 15 Mike Haley, 14 Calvin Nash, 13 Antoine Frisch, 12 Malakai Fekitoa, 11 Shane Daly, 10 Jack Crowley, 9 Conor Murray, 8 Gavin Coombes, 7 John Hodnett, 6 Peter O’Mahony (c), 5 Tadhg Beirne, 4 Jean Kleyn, 3 Stephen Archer, 2 Diarmuid Barron, 1 Jeremy Loughman
Replacements: 16 Niall Scannell, 17 Josh Wycherley, 18 Roman Salanoa, 19 RG Snyman, 20 Alex Kendelle, 21 Craig Casey, 22 Ben Healy, 23 Keith Earls
The Betting - Free R25 Sign Up Bonus Plus 50 Free Spins. Need to open an account? Register here
Stormers -5.5 points at 9/10
Munster +5.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
The handicap has barely moved all week and opinion amongst punters is divided. Personally I think that the Stormers will struggle with Munsters style and am leaning towards the visitors on the handicap and I think they can win the game.
The bet I prefer though is under 48.5 points.
The concern is that Stormers games have been high scoring of late with 68 in the Connacht game and 54 in the Bulls game.
I believe Munster are a different challenge though and if you look at their knock out games there were 19 points away at Glasgow and 31 against Leinster. They have also had an extra week to prepare (Connacht had to fly to SA after upsetting Ulster in the quarters) and will be looking to keep posession and slow the game down.
Then lets throw in the poor condition of the pitch which may be even worse than usualy after heavy rains. The pitch should favour the side looking to slow the game down although the Stormers have been able to defy that in the past.
Finally this is a final and both teams will be fired up defensively. Last years final at the Cape Town Stadium saw 31 points scored and the previous 3 years finals had 22,32 and 33 points in them respectively.
Bet: 5 units under 48.5 points at 10/11 at Pokerbet*
*To support Goodforthegame please use this link to open your Pokerbet account
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
THE HANDICAP
Join @BrentGraham and the panel live at 9pm on Thursday night for “The Handicap”. Subscribe to the channel and set a reminder here.
More tips, news and views are available on the weekly rugby thread on our discussion forum. If you are new to our community you can open an account here.
Subscribe to our free weekly betting mailer which will include our best and value bets below.
