The Stormers first action in the United Rugby Championship takes them to Bridgend for a clash with the Ospreys on Saturday night.
Ospreys v Stormers, Saturday 28th September, Bridgend, KO 20:35 (South African time)
Referee: Andrew Brace (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Rhys Jones (Wales), Ben Connor (Wales)
TMO: Olly Hodges (Ireland)
Weather Forecast – Bridgend
Ospreys:
The Ospreys were in action away to the Dragons in Round 1 and they lost 23-21 with the Dragons scoring a converted try right at the death, leaving the Ospreys with a single losing bonus point.
The Ospreys finished eighth on the log last season with a record of 10 wins and 8 defeats to squeeze into the play offs. They fell at the first hurdle, losing away to Munster 23-7. When hosting South African sides in 2023/24 the Ospreys beat the Sharks 19-5 in Round 3 and the Lions 36-21 in Round 13. Their stand out result came against the Stormers in Cape Town in Round 14 when they came away with a 27-21 victory.
In the outright betting to win the URC title the Ospreys are 170/1 rank outsiders with BoyleSports.
Stormers:
The Stormers won 12 and lost 6 of their regular season matches in 2023/24 and 59 log points was good enough for fifth place. That meant they had to travel in the play offs and they bowed out in the first knockout round after going down 27-10 to Glasgow Warriors who went on to win the tournament.
The Stormers lost all 4 of their first tour matches last season including a visit to Cardiff, 31-24 in Round 6. Later in the campaign they put the Dragons away 44-21 in Newport in Round 16 and also won in Ireland at Connacht whilst their shock home defeat to the Ospreys was the only loss on home soil.
After this the Stormers visit Zebre Parma and Edinburgh before returning home for a Round 5 clash with Munster.
In the outright betting to win the URC title the Stormers are 13/1 with BoyleSports.
Team News
Ospreys: 15 Jack Walsh, 14 Luke Morgan, 13 Owen Watkin, 12 Keiran Williams, 11 Ryan Conbeer, 10 Dan Edwards, 9 Reuben Morgan-Williams, 8 Morgan Morris, 7 Justin Tipuric, 6 Jac Morgan (captain), 5 Adam Beard, 4 James Ratti, 3 Tom Botha, 2 Dewi Lake, 1 Gareth Thomas.
Replacements: 16 Ethan Lewis, 17 Garyn Phillips, 18 Ben Warren, 19 Huw Sutton, 20 Harri Deaves, 21 Luke Davies, 22 Phil Cokanasiga, 23 Max Nagy
Stormers: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Dan du Plessis (captain), 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Jurie Matthee, 9 Paul de Wet, 8 Keke Morabe, 7 David Ewers, 6 Marcel Theunissen, 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 JD Schickerling, 3 Neethling Fouche, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Sti Sithole.
Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Leon Lyons, 18 Brok Harris, 19 Adre Smith, 20 Ben-Jason Dixon, 21 Stefan Ungerer, 22 Jean-Luc du Plessis, 23 Angelo Davids
The Betting,
Ospreys +2.5 points at 9/10
Stormers -2.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
The Stormers are slight favourites for this game at -2.5. I like the team they have selected and believe they can get the job done against an Ospreys side that didn’t impress me last week.
I am going to back the Stormers to win by 3 points or more.
The points line is 47.5 and I will assess conditions closer to kick off and will post any bets in the forum
BET: 3 units Stormers -2.5 at 19/20 at WSB
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
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