The Bulls are away to Castres in the European Champions Cup on Saturday and in terms of keeping qualification hopes alive it's a must win game for the visitors
Castres v Bulls, Saturday 11th January, Castres, KO 22:00 (South African time)
Referee: Matthew Carley (Eng)
Assistant Referees: Hamish Smales (Eng), Jamie Leahy (Eng)
TMO: David Rose (Eng)
Weather Forecast - Castres
Castres:
Castres started their pool campaign away to Northampton Saints are they finished well beaten, going down 38-8. They put themselves on the board in Round 2 when they edged out Munster 16-14 and they start the round in fourth place in the pool with 4 log points.
In the Top 14 Castres are just below halfway in the standings with 7 wins and 7 defeats, all 7 of those wins came in home fixtures, they have lost just once in front of their own supporters and that came against league leaders Bordeaux.
Castres finish up this pool away to Saracens and in the outright betting to win the Champions Cup they are priced at around 200/1
Bulls:
The Bulls are 1 of 2 sides in this pool who are yet to earn a log point, Stade Francais are the other. They began their Champions Cup campaign away to Saracens and they went down 27-5. A subsequent home fixture against Northampton Saints also finished in defeat (30-21) leaving them with plenty to do here and in their final pool match at home to Stade Francais.
In the URC the Bulls are in fourth place with a record of 5 wins and 2 defeats and although log leaders Leinster are well clear the Bulls have 2 games in hand on the top 3 sides. They played just the 1 match over the festive period and it ended in a 20-17 defeat to the Sharks in Durban.
In the outright betting to win the Champions Cup the Bulls are priced at around 35/1
Team News
Castres: 15 Julien Dumora, 14 Geoffrey Palis, 13 Vilimoni Botitu, 12 Jack Goodhue, 11 Rémy Baget, 10 Pierre Popelin, 9 Jeremy Fernandez, 8 Abraham Papalii, 7 Tyler Ardron, 6 Mathieu Babillot (c), 5 Florent Vanverberghe, 4 Guillaume Ducat, 3 Levan Chilachava, 2 Gaetan Barlot, 1 Antoine Tichit
Replacements: 16 Pierre Colonna, 17 Lois Guerois-Galisson, 18 Nicolas Corato, 19 Leone Nakarawa, 20 Simon Meka, 21 Santiago Arata, 22 Theo Chabouni, 23 Adrien Seguret
Bulls: 15 Henry Immelman, 14 Sibongile Novuka, 13 Katlego Letebele, 12 Chris Barend Smit, 11 Aphiwe Dyantyi, 10 Boeta Chamberlain, 9 Bernard van der Linde, 8 Nizaam Carr (captain), 7 Celimpilo Gumede, 6 Kuyenzeka Xaba, 5 Sintu Manjezi, 4 JF van Heerden, 3 Mornay Smith, 2 Jan-hendrik Wessels, 1 Alulutho Tshakweni.
Replacements: 16 Joe van Zyl, 17 Dylan Smith, 18 Sebastian Lombard, 19 Deon Slabbert, 20 Corné Beets, 21 Keagan Johannes, 22 Jaco van der Walt, 23 Cornel Smit
The Betting
Updated 11 Jan 20h08
Castres -9.5 points at 9/10
Bulls +10.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
Posted 10 Jan 09h57
Those following the Week 3 Champions Cup blog and the Forum thread will know that I got on Castres early in the week when this was a choice game. The assumption was the Bulls would send a 2nd string team and that is very much the case and the line is now -9.5 Castres.
I will be waiting for Castres team news and points lines before returning with a bet.
Posted 11 Jan 08h11
The points line is 47.5 and I am not going to get involved there.
If I were not already on Castres to win I would still take them on the minus as I think they are going to beat the Bulls cmfortably.
I am going to take a double Castres minus onto Leicester minus at 26/10.
BET: 2 units :Leicester -14.5 0.94/1 onto Castres -10.5 0.86/1 = 26/10 at Betxchange
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
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