The Lions host Edinburgh in the United Rugby Championship in Johannesburg on Saturday, an opportunity for the home side to strengthen their position in the play off places.
Lions v Edinburgh, Saturday 21st March, Johannesburg, KO 14:45 (South African time)
Referee: Gianluca Gnecchi (Italy)
Assistant referees: Hanru van Rooyen (South Africa), Stephen Geldenhuys (South Africa)
TMO: Eoghan Cross (Ireland)
Weather Forecast - Johannesburg
Lions:
The Lions come into this round in seventh place with a record of 6 wins, 1 draw and 5 defeats and with 33 log points they are 8 shy of a top 4 spot and 6 points shy of sixth placed Munster.
Recent home games delivered wins in derby matches against the Sharks (34-22) and the Stormers (24-10) which helped the Lons secure top spot in the South African Shield.
This is the first of 4 more home games for the Lions which includes a clash with log leaders Glasgow Warriors in Round 15. They won’t travel again until the final 2 rounds of the regular season for tough games at Leinster and Munster.
In the outright betting to win the URC title the Lions are 50/1 with Hollywoodbets
Edinburgh:
Edinburgh are twelfth in the standings with a record of 4 wins and 8 defeats and they have 23 log points which is 7 shy of a play off place.
A catch up game at home to Ulster last week saw Edinburgh crash to a 40-19 defeat and at the end of February they were 24-19 winners at home to the Scarlets.
One earlier match against South African opposition saw Edinburgh lose 19-17 at home to the Bulls in Round 10 on the 23rd January. They will visit the Stormers next week and are due to host the Sharks in Round 16.
In the outright betting to win the URC title Edinburgh are 350/1 shots with Hollywoodbets
Team News
Lions: 15 Quan Horn, 14 Angelo Davids, 13 Henco van Wyk, 12 Bronson Mills, 11 Erich Cronje, 10 Chris Smith, 9 Morné van den Berg, 8 Francke Horn (captain), 7 Ruan Venter, 6 Siba Mahashe, 5 Darrien Landsberg, 4 Etienne Oosthuizen, 3 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 2 PJ Botha, 1 SJ Kotze
Replacements: 16 Franco Marais, 17 Eddie Davids, 18 RF Schoeman, 19 Reinhard Nothnagel, 20 Batho Hlekani, 21 Renzo du Plessis, 22 Haashim Pead, 23 Richard Kriel
Edinburgh: 15 Harry Paterson, 14 Malelili Satala, 13 Matt Currie, 12 Mosese Tuipulotu, 11 Jack Brown, 10 Ross Thompson, 9 Ben Vellacott, 8 Magnus Bradbury (c), 7 Freddy Douglas, 6 Ben Muncaster, 5 Glen Young, 4 Marshall Sykes, 3 D’arcy Rae, 2 Dylan Richardson, 1 Boan Venter
Replacements: 16 Ewan Ashman, 17 James Whitcombe, 18 Paul Hill, 19 Callum Hunter-Hill, 20 Liam McConnell, 21 Charlie Shiel, 22 Cammy Scott, 23 Piers O’Conor
The Betting,
Average early show
Lions -10.5 points at 9/10
Edinburgh +10.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
Tips and more news and betting angles for Round 13 of the URC will be available on Brent Graham's betting blog which is available here.
Plays for Round 6 of Super Rugby will be available here.
Finally, all this week's rugby tips from members of the Goodforthegame community can be found on the weekly rugby thread on our brand new discussion forum. If you haven't done so already, register a forum account here.
