Durban hosts the second and final international rugby test between South Africa and Ireland on Saturday and after a tough contest at Loftus last week the Boks lead the series 1-0.
South Africa v Ireland, Saturday 13th July, Durban, KO 17:00 (South African time)
Referee: Karl Dickson (RFU)
Assistant Referees: Luke Pearce (RFU), Craig Evans (WRU)
TMO: Ian Tempest (RFU)
Weather Forecast – Durban
South Africa:
South Africa started the first test in Pretoria at around 7.5 point favourites on the bookmakers main handicap line and that proved to be accurate as they came out on top 27-20.
It took just 3 minutes for Kurt-Lee Arendse to score the first try and the Boks maintained the lead thereafter. It was 13-8 at half time and remained that way until a Kolbe try on 65 minutes which was duly converted extended the lead to 20-8. There was a flurry of late scores with Ireland scoring 2 more tries on 75 and 79 minutes either side of penalty try for the Boks who notched up their first win over Ireland for 8 years.
With a series win in touching distance coach Rassie Erasmus has named the starting line up that took to the field at Loftus last week.
The Boks tuned up for this series with a test match against Wales at Twickenham two weeks ago and they came out on top 41-13, scoring 5 tries in total to one from Wales.
After this South Africa host Portugal before the Rugby Championship gets underway in August.
Ireland:
James Osborne on debut in the first half and Murray and Baird late in the second scored the Irish tries in the first test whilst Crowley landed one conversion and one penalty. Ireland also had a couple of tries chalked off by the TMO and there was further bad news in terms of player availability for the second test.
Hooker Dan Sheehan is injured and out of this test as is Craig Casey due to concussion and at the time of writing a couple of other members of the touring party were reportedly nursing knocks. .
Earlier this year Ireland successfully defended the Six Nations title finishing 5 points clear of France. A 23-22 defeat to England at Twickenham in Round 4 torpedoed hopes of another Grand Slam whilst their four other 6N matches ended in victory; in France (38-17), at home to Italy (36-0), at home to Wales (31-7) and at home to Scotland (17-13).
In RWC 2023 Ireland won all of their pool matches including a 13-9 win over the Boks in Paris but they fell at the quarter final stage, going down 28-24 to the All Blacks.
Team News
South Africa: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Handré Pollard 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Kwagga Smith, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Ox Nche.
Replacements: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Salmaan Moerat, 20 RG Snyman, 21 Marco van Staden, 22 Grant Williams, 23 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu
Ireland: 15 Jamie Osborne, 14 Calvin Nash, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Robbie Henshaw, 11 James Lowe, 10 Jack Crowley, 9 Conor Murray, 8 Caelan Doris (captain), 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Tadhg Beirne, 5 James Ryan, 4 Joe McCarthy, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 2 Rónan Kelleher, 1 Andrew Porter.
Replacements: 16 Rob Herring, 17 Cian Healy, 18 Finlay Bealham, 19 Ryan Baird, 20 Peter O’Mahony, 21 Caolin Blade. 22 Ciaran Frawley, 23 Stuart McCloskey
Recent Head to Head
Prior to the aforementioned RWC 2023 pool stage match when Ireland hosted the Boks in Dublin in November 2022 they came out on top 19-16.
In November 2017 Ireland thrashed the Boks 38-3, also in Dublin.
Ireland last toured South Africa in 2016, they won the first test in Cape Town 26-20, the second test saw the Boks come out on top 32-26 and South Africa then clinched the series with a 19-13 win in Port Elizabeth.
The Betting
South Africa -9.5 points at 9/10
Ireland +9.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
Of the 3 big international tests this weekend this one has me scratching my head.
I was leaning to the Boks who I felt were the stronger team last week despite not capitalising on their dominance. At the same time it must be acknowledged they got the rub of the green as far as decisions went and on another day Ireland could have won the game.
The Irish are missing a couple of players and they looked a bit bruised at the end of the 1st test and I am leaning Boks minus here.
The points line of 46.5 looks well set and I would have been on unders at 49.5 and higher.
I am going to default to to the SA by 1-12 option which delivered for me last weekend.
BET: 2 units South Africa by 1-12 points at 17/10 at Betxchange*
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Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
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