The Bulls host Benetton in the quarter finals of the United Rugby Championship at Loftus Saturday and the bookmakers handicap line suggests they should make further progress.
Bulls v Benetton, Saturday 8th June, Pretoria, KO 15:30 (South African time)
Referee: Mike Adamson (Scotland)
Assistant referees: Sam Grove-White (Scotland) and Adam Jones (Wales)
TMO: Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
Weather Forecast – Pretoria
Bulls:
The Bulls won 13 and lost 5 of their matches in the regular season and that took them to second position with 66 points, 2 behind Munster and 1 clear of Leinster and Glasgow Warriors. They also topped the South Africa Shield ahead of the Stormers who were fifth overall.
The Bulls went down 27-22 to Munster in Round 14, their only home defeat this season and they beat Benetton 56-35 at Loftus as recently as Round 17, scoring 9 tries to 5. One earlier match against Italian opposition saw the Bulls beat Zebre 54-29 in Parma in Round 3.
Last season the Bulls bowed out at the quarter final stage when they lost 33-21 to the Stormers in Cape Town.
In the outright betting the Bulls are now 48/10 third favourites to win the tournament with BoyleSports who have Leinster at the top of the boards at 13/20.
Benetton:
Benetton finished seventh in the URC standings with 11 wins, 1 draw and 6 defeats and they finished with 54 log points.
A week before they lost to the Bulls at Loftus Benetton edged out the Sharks 25-24 in Durban. In earlier matches against South African opposition Benetton beat the Lions 15-10 and the Stormers 20-17 in home fixtures in Rounds 3 and 4.
Benetton are priced at 64/1 to win the URC title with BoyleSports
Team News
Bulls: 15 Willie Le Roux, 14 Sebastian de Klerk, 13 David Kriel, 12 Harold Vorster, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Johan Goosen, 9 Embrose Papier, 8 Cameron Hanekom, 7 Elrigh Louw, 6 Nizaam Carr, 5 Ruan Nortje (c), 4 Ruan Vermaak, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Gerhard Steenekamp
Replacements: 16 Akker van der Merwe, 17 Simphiwe Matanzima, 18 Francois Klopper, 19 Reinhardt Ludwig, 20 Jannes Kirsten, 21 Keagan Johannes, 22 Chris Smith, 23 Sergeal Petersen
Benetton: 15 Rhyno Smith, 14 Tommaso Menoncello, 13 Ignacio Brex, 12 Malakai Fekitoa, 11 Onisi Ratave, 10 Tomas Albornoz, 9 Andy Uren, 8 Toa Halafihi, 7 Michele Lamaro (C), 6 Alessandro Izekor, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Edoardo Iachizzi, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Bautista Bernasconi, 1 Thomas Gallo
Replacements: 16 Gianmarco Lucchesi, 17 Mirco Spagnolo, 18 Giosué Zilocchi, 19 Eli Snyman, 20 Niccolò Cannone, 21 Lorenzo Cannone, 22 Alessandro Garbisi, 23 Jacob Umaga
The Betting,
Bulls -18.5 points at 9/10
Benetton +18.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
Posted 06 June, 23h22
The Bulls are -18.5 for this one and the handicap feels to me like it is well set.
The Bulls won by 21 in a high scoring encounter in Mid May (56-35) and while I don’t think we will get such a high scoring game I can’t resist the over 57.5 at Loftus on what should be a beautiful winters day.
It is a toss up between Bulls over 38.5 and the match overs but I have a feeling that Benetton will come to the pasrty and will go for the latter.
BET: 4 units over 57.5 points at 9/10 at Pokerbet*
*You can open a Pokerbet Account by clicking here
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
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