The Stormers host Sale Sharks in the European Champions Cup in Cape Town on Saturday and the home side have to win to keep any hopes of reaching the knockout rounds alive.
Stormers v Sale Sharks, Saturday 11th January, Cape Town, KO 15:00 (South African time)
Referee: Ludovic Cayre (Fra)
Assistant Referees: Evan Urruzmendi (Fra) , Vincent Blasco Baque (Fra)
TMO: Eric Gauzins (Fra)
Weather Forecast – Cape Town
Stormers:
The Stormers are in big trouble in the Pool 4 standings, rock bottom and without a log point. They lost both their opening games, 24-14 against RC Toulon in a match staged in Port Elizabeth and then an understrength side were soundly beaten 53-16 away to Harlequins.
Since then the Stormers fortunes in the URC have picked up on the back of home wins in local derby matches against the Lions (29-10) and the Hollywoodbets Sharks (24-20).
The Stormers will finish up the pool with a visit to Racing 92 and in the outright betting to win the Champions Cup they are priced at around 500/1 and you can get 33/1 about them reaching the quarter finals.
Sale Sharks:
Sales Sharks have 1 win and 1 defeat against their name and they are currently fourth in the pool with 5 log points. Their opening match came away to Glasgow Warriors and they were beaten 38-19. In Round 2 Sale put themselves on the board with a 29-7 home win over Racing 92, scoring 4 tries to 1 and picking up a bonus point.
In the Premiership Sale Sharks are in sixth place with a record of 6 wins and 4 defeats and they are 4 points off a top 4 position. Since their last Champions Cup outing they have won at home to Exeter Chiefs (28-10) and Bristol Bears (38-0) but last time out they went down 36-20 away to Gloucester.
After this Sale's final pool match comes at home to RC Toulon and in the outright betting to win the Champions Cup they are priced at around 110/1 and you can get 5/1 about them reaching the quarter finals.
Team News
Stormers: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 13 Wandisile Simelane, 12 Jonathan Roche, 11 Ben Loader, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Stefan Ungerer, 8 Marcel Theunissen, 7 Dave Ewers, 6 Deon Fourie, 5 JD Schickerling, 4 Salmaan Moerat (captain), 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 JJ Kotze, 1 Sti Sithole.
Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Ali Vermaak, 18 Neethling Fouché, 19 Ruben van Heerden, 20 Evan Roos, 21 Paul de Villiers, 22 Paul de Wet, 23 Jean-Luc du Plessis
Sale Sharks: 15 Joe Carpenter, 14 Tom Roebuck, 13 Luke James, 12 Sam Bedlow, 11 Arron Reed, 10 Robert du Preez (c), 9 Gus Warr, 8 Dan du Preez, 7 Tom Curry, 6 Jean-Luc du Preez, 5 Hyron Andrews, 4 Ernst van Rhyn, 3 Willgriff John, 2 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 1 Bevan Rodd
Replacements: 16 Tadgh McElroy, 17 Si McIntyre, 18 James Harper, 19 Josh Beaumont, 20 Ben Bamber, 21 Nye Thomas, 22 Rekeiti Maasi-White, 23 Ben Curry
The Betting
Updated 10 Jan 15h37
Stormers -7.5 points at 9/10
Sale Sharks +8.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
Posted 10 Jan 09h38
This handicap has been stable at Stormers -7.5 all week. Being at home they will want to perform but on the other hand Sale will be the keener of the sides to stay in the competition.
I am going to wait for team news and points lines before getting involved.
Click here for our Investec Champions Cup Week 3 betting blog with a play on every game
Posted 10 Jan 15h37
The teams are out and I am not surprised to see Sale pretty much at full strength. They are very much in the top 4 race and while the Stormers still have a chance after 2 defeats you have to think the coaches are thinking of the URC.
The Stormers have edged to -8.5 on some books and like Southpaw in our forum I am battling to understand the reasoning.
I like the +8.5 but my bet here is for the Sale Sharks to get the win.
BET: 2 units Sale Sharks win at 31/10 at Betxchange
Bet: To follow
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
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