Johannesburg hosts the Lions and the Stormers in the first of two South African derby matches in the United Rugby Championship on Saturday and both sides are currently outside of the play off places.
Lions v Stormers, Saturday 15th February, Johannesburg, KO 14:30 (South African time)
Referee: Griffin Colby (South Africa)
Assistant Referees: Hanru Van Rooyen (South Africa) & Stephan Geldenhuys (South Africa)
TMO: Egon Seconds (South Africa)
Weather Forecast – Johannesburg
Lions:
In the URC the Lions have won 4 and lost 4 of their first 8 games, they have fallen out of the top 8 and are 5 points off a play off place but they have 1 and 2
games in hand on all the other sides. In the outright betting the Lions are 50/1 shots to win the URC title with WSB.
After winning each of their first 4 games (2 at home, 2 on tour) the Lions 100% record was snapped in a 24-6 defeat to Leinster in Dublin and in Round 7 they went down 17-10 at Munster. Just before Christmas they lost 29-10 away to the Stormers and in their most recent URC outing on the 25th January they lost 35-22 at home to the Bulls.
Stormers:
The Stormers record of 4 wins and 6 defeats for 23 log points sees them in tenth place on the log, 1 point behind 8th place Edinburgh and they are 4 points better off than the Lions having played 2 games more.
In earlier SA derby matches the Stormers lost to the Sharks in Durban (21-15) in Round 7, in Round 8 they beat the Lions in Cape Town (29-10) and in Round 9, also in Cape Town, they won the return with the Sharks (24-20). Last weekend another home fixture and the only URC match to take place the Stormers were edged out 33-32 by the Bulls.
In the outright betting to win the URC title the Stormers are 33/1 shots with WSB.
Team News
Lions: 15 Quan Horn, 14 Richard Kriel, 13 Henco van Wyk, 12 Marius Louw, 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Gianni Lombard, 9 Morne van den Berg, 8 Francke Horn (captain), 7 Ruan Venter, 6 JC Pretorius, 5 Darrien Landsberg, 4 Etienne Oosthuizen, 3 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 2 PJ Botha, 1 Juan Schoeman.
Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 SJ Kotze, 18 RF Schoeman, 19 Ruan Delport, 20 Jarod Cairns, 21 Nico Steyn, 22 Lubabalo Dobela, 23 Manuel Rass
Stormers: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Ben Loader, 13 Wandisile Simelane, 12 Dan du Plessis, 11 Angelo Davids, 10 Jurie Matthee, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Deon Fourie, 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 Salmaan Moerat (captain), 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 JJ Kotze, 1 Ali Vermaak.
Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Brok Harris, 18 Neethling Fouche, 19 Gary Porter, 20 Paul de Villiers, 21 Marcel Theunissen, 22 Paul de Wet, 23 Jonathan Roche
The Betting,
Updated 15 Feb 07h01
Lions -5.5 points at 9/10
Stormers +6.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
Posted 13 Feb 06h59
The line opened -2.5 Lions and the money has come for the home team who are out to -5.5 in places.
I will be waiting for team news and points lines before having a bet.
Posted 15 Feb 07h09
The teams are out and handicap is table at Lions -5.5 and -6.5 levels.
I don't think the Stormers are putting out a bad team and am leaning in their direction on the handicap and give them a decent shout at winning. Frankly neither team can be trusted at the moment so am going to keep the stake lower and go Stormers to win.
My main focus is points and I am surprised to be getting a line of 48.5 on totals. We have had some rain in Joburg and it is overcast as I tap this out but I think this line moves above 50 points.
BET: 2 units Stormers win at 21/10 at Betxchange
BET: 5 units over 48.5 points at 9/10 at Pokerbet
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
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