The Bulls final Champions Cup Pool 4 action of what has been a miserable campaign so far takes place on Friday night when they take on Section Paloise in Pau.
Section Paloise v Bulls, Friday 16th January, Pau, KO 22:00 (South African time)
Referee: Karl Dickson (Eng)
Assistant Referees: Craig Evans (Wal), George Selwood (Eng)
TMO: Mike Adamson (Sco)
Weather Forecast – Pau
Section Paloise:
This is a Pool 4 clash and coming into the final round Bordeuax have 15 points, Bristol Bears 14 and Northampton Saints 11 and all 3 of those sides have qualified for the knockout rounds. Section Paloise have 5 points and the Scarlets and the Bulls have 2 points a piece. The top 4 finishers stay in the tournament, the fifth placed side drops into the Challenge Cup and whoever finishes bottom is eliminated.
Section Paloise lost their first 2 matches, 35-27 at home to Northampton Saints and 61-12 away to Bristol Bears. They put themselves on the board in Round 3, seeing off the Scarlets 47-38 in Wales
In the Top 14 Pau are going really well in second place, just 1 point behind Toulouse with a record of 10 wins and 4 defeats.
In the outright betting to win the tournament Section Paloise are 300/1 shots with Hollywoodbets
Bulls:
Although the Bulls could still finish in the top 4 their results so far offer little encouragement. A 61-49 home defeat to Bristol Bears in Round 3 last weekend was preceded by losses away to the Saints (50-5) and at home to Bordeaux (46-33)
The Bulls URC campaign is also floundering. They lost 21-12 away to the Sharks before Christmas and then they went down 13-8 to the Stormers in Cape Town. The Bulls are currently eleventh on the URC log and all of 12 points off a top 4 spot. They are also bottom of the South Africa Shield.
To win the Champions Cup title this season the Bulls are now 500/1 shots with Hollywoodbets
Team News
Section Paloise: 15 Jack Maddocks, 14 Theo Attissogbe, 13 Nathan Decron, 12 Quentin Valentino, 11 Aaron Grandidier Nkanang, 10 Clément Mondinat, 9 Dan Robson, 8 Carwyn Tuipulotu, 7 Loic Credoz, 6 Luke Whitelock (captain), 5 Jimi Maximin, 4 Hugo Auradou, 3 Guram Papidze, 2 Lucas Rey, 1 Daniel Bibi Biziwu
Replacements: 16 Julian Montoya, 17 Remi Seneca, 18 Thomas Laclayat, 19 Thomas Jolmes, 20 Remi Picquette, 21 Facundo Isa, 22 Thomas Souverbie, 23 Fabien Brau-Boirie
Bulls: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Cheswill Jooste, 13 Sebastian de Klerk, 12 Harold Voster, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Zak Burger, 8 Nizaam Carr, 7 Mpilo Gumede, 6 Marcell Coetzee (captain), 5 Reinhardt Ludwig, 4 Ruan Vermaak, 3 Mornay Smith, 2 Akker van der Merwe, 1 Jan-Hendrik Wessels.
Replacements: 16 Marco van Staden, 17 Alu Tshakweni, 18 Francois Klopper, 19 Ruan Nortje, 20 Cobus Wiese, 21 Keagan Johannes, 22 David Kriel, 23 Jeandre Rudolph
The Betting,
Average early show
Section Paloise -10.5 points at 9/10
Bulls +10.5 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 this weeks Champions Cup matches will be posted 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.