A preview of Saturday's United Rugby Championship clash between Cardiff and the Sharks including best bets with @Olimp_SA
Cardiff vs. Sharks, United Rugby Championship 16 October 20:35
Cardiff
After suffering back-to-back losses Cardiff have slipped down to 9th place on the log. Their United Rugby Championship campaign started off promising enough with a bonus point victory, but since then they have only managed to pick up one losing bonus point and now sit with 6 points. They will look to nip their losing run in the bud when they face the Sharks on Saturday evening.
Last week Cardiff were at home against the Bulls and went into the match as favourites with the bookies giving them -4.5 points on the handicap. Cardiff lock Matthew Screech scored the only try of the first half and along with three penalties from Rhys Priestland they secured themselves a comfortable 16-3 lead at half time. The Welsh side perhaps got a little bit too comfortable at the break and let in a try shortly after the restart. They were unable to get anything going in the second half and after conceding a second try on the 60 minute mark along with a number of penalties they ended up losing the match 29-19. They only managed one penalty in the second half and came up well short of the pre match handicap.
In Round 2 they lost 18-14 to fellow Welsh side Ospreys after going into the match as slight underdogs, while their opening encounter saw them take down Connacht 33-21 in what has been their best performance in the tournament so far. They were given a head start of 5.5 points by the bookies for this one and covered it comfortably.
Sharks
The Sharks finally picked up their first win and points of the tournament last week and now find themselves in 13th place on the log. They look to make it two wins from four matches before they head into a lengthy break that will hopefully end with a fixture in Durban in November.
The Sharks went into last week’s match against Ospreys as massive underdogs. The bookies gave them a 12.5 point head start for the match and they didn’t need any of it. The game remained tight in the first half with only penalties from Ospreys and drop goals from the Sharks which meant that the sides went into the break with 6 points each. However, things opened up very fast in the second half and Jeremy Ward dotted down shortly after the break for the visitors. Marnus Potgieter added a second and along with a third drop goal by Boeta Chamberlain, the Sharks were able to hold off the Ospreys despite a late try and win the match 27-13.
Prior to last week the Sharks lost 35-24 to Glasgow after being given +8.5 points on the handicap by the bookies, while they went down 42-17 in their opening clash with Munster and narrowly missed out on covering the pre match handicap of +24.5 points.
Prediction
The handicap for this match has been set at -3.5 points in favour of Cardiff and as with the Stormers game I think this is much too low. Sure Cardiff did lose last week and the Sharks were much better against Ospreys, but I still feel that Cardiff are the better team going into this clash and as long as they can avoid another second half fade then they should easily win this match.
However, I’ll rather play it safe and take them on the first half handicap which is also very low at -1.5 points. The Welsh side are strong starters and they have managed to cover this margin at half time in two of their three matches so far, while the Sharks seem to do the opposite and score the majority of their points in the second half of their matches.
BetOlimp Best Bets
Half time handicap: Cardiff -1.5 points – 1.84
(Note, all odds quoted are subject to change)
Claim your 1st deposit bonus up to R3,000 here
Click here for details of our all current promotions
