After three defeats on tour the Lions return to Johannesburg for a Round 4 United Rugby Championship clash against the Scarlets in Johannesburg on Saturday
Lions v Scarlets, Saturday 18th October, Johannesburg, KO 13:45 (South African time)
Referee: Eoghan Cross (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Griffin Colby (South Africa); AJ Jacobs (South Africa)
TMO: Sam Grove-White (Scotland)
Weather Forecast - Johannesburg
Lions:
The Lion are back in Joburg and are still looking for their first win of the season. So far they have played three matches overseas, all of which ended in defeat and they are second bottom on the standings with just a single log point.
In the opening round they went down 33-20 at Cardiff. Round 2 saw hit back from 12-3 down at half time away to Zebre to lead 20-15 with just a couple of minutes remaining but they couldn’t hold on and were edged out 22-20. In Round 3 the Lions crashed to a 41-15 defeat at Benetton.
After this the Lions will host Ulster before the international break and in the outright betting to win the URC title they are 200/1 long shots with Hollywoodbets
Scarlets:
The Scarlets hosted the Stormers in Round 3 and they crashed and burned 34-0, conceding five tries in total. Their scheduled Round 2 clash away to Connacht was postponed and in the opening round they lost 34-21 at home to Munster.
That leaves the Scarlets at the foot of the table and the only side yet to earn a log point although they have played just the two games.
At the tail end of last season, the Scarlets beat the Lions 32-19 in Johannesburg before losing 12-3 to the Sharks in Durban. They reached the play offs where they fell at the first hurdle away to Leinster.
In the outright betting to win the URC title the Scarlets are 350/1 shots with Hollywoodbets
Team News
Lions: 15 Quan Horn, 14 Eduan Keyter, 13 Henco van Wyk, 12 Richard Kriel, 11 Angelo Davids, 10 Chris Smith, 9 Nico Steyn, 8 Francke Horn (c), 7 Ruan Venter, 6 JC Pretorious, 5 Darrien Landsberg, 4 Etienne Oosthuizen, 3 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 2 Franco Marais, 1 SJ Kotze
Replacements: 16 Morne Brandon, 17 RF Schoeman, 18 Conraad van Vuuren, 19 Reinhard Nothnagel, 20 Jarod Cairns, 21 Layton Horn, 22 Lubabalo Dobela, 23 Kelly Mpeku
Scarlets: 15 Ioan Nicholas, 14 Ellis Mee, 13 Macs Page, 12 Johnny Williams (c), 11 Blair Murray, 10 Sam Costelow, 9 Archie Hughes, 8 Taine Plumtree, 7 Dan Davis, 6 Jarrod Taylor, 5 Alex Groves, 4 Harvey Cuckson, 3 Archer Holz, 2 Marnus van der Merwe, 1 Alec Hepburn
Replacements: 16 Kirby Myhill, 17 Sam O’Connor, 18 Henry Thomas, 19 Dan Gemine, 20 Ben Williams, 21 Dane Blacker, 22 Joe Hawkins, 23 Joe Roberts
The Betting,
Average early show
Lions -11.5 points at 9/10
Scarlets +11.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
This Weeks Bets
Brent Graham's betting angle and plays for Round 4 of the URC will be available on this blog.
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.