The Stormers host the Lions in Cape Town in the United Rugby Championship on Saturday and the pre-match betting suggests there will be little between the sides.

 

 

 

Stormers v Lions, Saturday 21st December, Cape Town, KO 15:45 (South African time)

 

Referee: Christopher Allison (South Africa)
Assistant Referees: AJ Jacobs (South Africa), Stephan Geldenhuys (South Africa)
TMO: Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa)

 

Weather Forecast – Cape Town

 

Stormers:

 

The Stormers have been in Champions Cup action over the last 2 weeks and they lost both games, 24-14 against RC Toulon in a match staged in Port Elizabeth and then 53-16 away to Harlequins.

 

The Stormers now return to URC action and they are in some trouble. They finished the previous round in thirteenth position with 11 log points, they have 2 wins and 4 defeats against their name and in the outright betting to win the URC title the Stormers are 22/1 shots.

 

In URC Round 7 they went down 21-15 in a local derby away to the Sharks, picking up a bonus point but losing more ground to the leading sides. In earlier home games the Stormers had too much for Munster, coming out on top 34-19 in Cape Town in Round 5 but a week later a clash with Glasgow Warriors in Stellenbosch ended in a 28-17 defeat.

 

Lions:

 

The Lions have won 4 and lost 2 of their first 6 games, they come into the round in fifth spot with 19 points and in the outright betting the Lions are 25/1 shots to win the URC title.

 

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.

 

The first of last season's URC head to heads between these sides came in Johannesburg and the Stormers edged it 35-33 and in Round 18 the Stormers also came out on top in Cape Town, 29-24.

 

The Lions have been in Challenge Cup action over the last fortnight, losing their first pool match away to the Ospreys (30-14) before last week's home win over Section Paloise (43-35).

 

Team News

 

Stormers: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Marcel Theunissen, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Deon Fourie (captain), 5 JD Schickerling, 4 Salmaan Moerat, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Ali Vermaak.

Replacements: 16 JJ Kotze, 17 Brok Harris, 18 Neethling Fouché, 19 Adré Smith, 20 Willie Engelbrecht, 21 Paul de Villiers, 22 Paul de Wet, 23 Jean-Luc du Plessis

 

Lions: 15 Tapiwa Mafura, 14 Rabz Maxwane, 13 Erich Cronje, 12 Maruis Louw (captain), 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Sam Francis, 9 Morne van den Berg, 8 Francke Horn, 7 WJ Steenkamp, 6 Jarod Cairns, 5 Ruan Delport, 4 Ruben Schoeman, 3 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 2 PJ Botha, 1 Juan Schoeman.

Replacements: 16 Franco Marais, 17 Morgan Naude, 18 Conrad van Vuuren, 19 Darrien Landsberg, 20 Izan Esterhuizen, 21 JC Pretorius, 22 Sanele Nohamba, 23 Manny Rass

 

 

The Betting,

 

Posted 21 Dec 02h24

Stormers -7.5 points at 9/10

Lions +7.5 points at 9/10

 

Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.

 

Betting Angle

Posted 20 Dec 09h04

I capped this game Stormers -4.5 and after opening -1.5 the line is edging out with -2.5 and -3.5 currently available. 

I am going to wait for team news and possibly team news before placing a bet. 

Posted 21 Dec 02h24

I am kicking myself for not getting on the Stormers early as after team news the line has moved from -2.5 to -7.5. 

The points line is 49.5 and I am going tp ponder something in this market and will post my bet closer to kick off. 

Posted 21 Dec 09h03

The market I am looking for is not up yet so my main bet will probably only be placed late morning or early afternoon. 

There is a bit of a fun play I like now though and that is JC Pretorius to score the Lions last try at 14/1. He is likely to be on the park when the Lions score their last try and has shown to have a nose for the tryline in the past. 14/1 seems fair. 

 

Bet: 0.5 unit Pretorius Last LIONS Tryscorer at 14/1 at Pokerbet 

 Posted 21 Dec 14h59

The bet I ws waiting for was Stormers over 3.5 tries but at 13/20 it is a bit short for me. 

I am going to back them at 17/20 to score over 28.5 points and hope they take a few 3 pointers early and the Stormers would have landed this bet in the last 5 heads to heads between the sides. 

 

BET: 4 units Stormers over 28.5 points at 17/20 at Pokerbet 

 

Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.

 

 

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