The Bulls are South Africa's last remaining hope for silverware in the United Rugby Championship and they will host Leinster at Loftus in the first of Saturday's semi finals.
Bulls v Leinster, Saturday 15th June, Pretoria, KO 16:00 (South African time)
Referee: Sam Grove-White (Scotland)
Assistant referees: Mike Adamson (Scotland) and Adam Jones (Wales)
TMO: Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
Weather Forecast – Pretoria
Bulls:
The Bulls started last week's home quarter final against Benetton as 18.5 point favourites on the handicap, they led from start finish but couldn't cut loose and the final score was 30-23 with both sides scoring 3 tries a piece.
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.
The Bulls lost 47-14 to Leinster in Dublin in Round 13, they also went down 27-22 to Munster in Round 14, their only home defeat this season
Last season the Bulls bowed out at the quarter final stage when they lost 33-21 to the Stormers in Cape Town. In 2021/22 the Bulls famously beat Leinster 27-26 in a semi final staged in Dublin before they lost the final away to the Stormers (18-13).
The winner of this match will take on the victor of the second semi final between Munster and Glasgow Warriors and in the outright betting the Bulls are now 4/1 to win the tournament with WSB
Leinster:
Leinster came through their home quarter final with Ulster with a 40-23 victory and the handicap line of 16.5 points proved accurate. They were 17-0 up by half time and scored 6 tries in total whilst conceding 3.
Leinster had to settle for third spot in the standings at the end of the regular season with a record of 13 wins and 5 defeats.
Against South Africa opposition this season Leinster won home games against the Sharks (34-13) in Round 2 and that 47-14 victory over the Bulls in Round 13. They had the final stages of their Champions Cup campaign to contend with shortly after their tour to SA and weakened squad went down 44-12 to the Lions and 42-12 at the Stormers.
Leinster have bowed out at the semi final stage in each of the last 2 seasons, the aforementioned home defeat to the Bulls in 2021/22 and in 2022/23 they also had home advantage but were edged out by Munster (16-15).
In the outright betting to win the URC title WSB make Leinster 19/20 favourites.
Team News
Bulls: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Sergeal Petersen, 13 David Kriel, 12 Harold Vorster, 11 Devon Williams, 10 Johan Goosen, 9 Embrose Papier, 8 Cameron Hanekom, 7 Elrigh Louw, 6 Marco van Staden, 5 Ruan Nortje (captain), 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 Nizaam Carr, 21 Keagan Johannes, 22 Chris Smith, 23 Cornel Smit
Leinster: 15 Jimmy O’Brien, 14 Jordan Larmour, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Robbie Henshaw, 11 James Lowe, 10 Ross Byrne, 9 Jamison Gibson-Park, 8 Caelan Doris, 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Ryan Baird, 5 James Ryan (c), 4 Joe McCarthy, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 2 Dan Sheehan, 1 Andrew Porter
Replacements: 16 Rónan Kelleher, 17 Cian Healy, 18 Michael Ala’alatoa, 19 Ross Molony, 20 Jack Conan, 21 Luke McGrath, 22 Ciarán Frawley, 23 Jamie Osborne
The Betting,
Bulls +6.5 points
Leinster -5.5 points
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
This handicap has been bouncing around between +4.5 and +5.5 Bulls all week. Not surprisingly after seeing the support for Leinster on the live chat on last night’s THE HANDICAP, money does appear to be coming for the visitors again. They will have a very strong team at their disposal and the Bulls are missing a couple of key players out wide.
This should be a cracking match, but I think that a full strength Leinster team are going to love the conditions at Loftus and will win this game by a double digit margin.
BET: 5 Units Leinster -5.5 at 9/10 at Hollywood*
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Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
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