The Stormers are the last of the South African sides in United Rugby Championship action this weekend and they are bidding to keep up the pressure at the top of the standings when they host Edinburgh in Cape Town on Saturday night
Stormers v Edinburgh, Saturday 28th March, Cape Town, KO 19:00 (South African time)
Referee: Eoghan Cross (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Griffin Colby (South Africa), Sean Muller (South Africa)
TMO: Gianluca Gnecchi (Italy)
Weather Forecast – Cape Town
Stormers:
The Stormers finished Round 13 second on the log and their record now comprises of 10 wins and 3 defeats for 46 log points. That puts them 4 points behind the leaders Glasgow Warriors and 4 ahead of third placed Ulster with Leinster a further point back in fourth.
After reeling off 8 straight wins at the start of the campaign the Stormers lost their next 3 games but they have since won back to back games, beating the Bulls 32-19 at Loftus and last week they made heavy weather of a 29-21 home win over the Drgons but still picked up a bonus point.
The Stormers still have 2 more home games with Connacht and Glasgow due here before they finish the regular season overseas at Ulster and Cardiff.
In the outright betting to win the URC title the Stormers are now 5/1 third favourites with Hollywoodbets with Leinster topping the boards at even money and Glasgow Warriors are 7/2.
Edinburgh:
Edinburgh are thirteenth in the standings with a record of 4 wins and 9 defeats and they have 23 log points which is 12 shy of a play off place.
They crashed to a 54-17 defeat to the Lions in Johannesburg last week and prior to that a catch up game at home to Ulster saw Edinburgh lose 40-19.
One earlier match against South African opposition saw Edinburgh edged out 19-17 at home to the Bulls in Round 10 on the 23rd January and they are due to host the Sharks in Round 16.
In the outright betting to win the URC title Edinburgh are 500/1 shots with Hollywoodbets
Team News
Stormers: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Damian Willemse, 13 Ruhan Nel (c), 12 Dan du Plessis, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Stefan Ungerer, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Paul de Villiers, 5 JD Schickerling, 4 Adré Smith, 3 Sazi Sandi, 2 André-Hugo Venter, 1 Ntuthuko Mchunu.
Replacements: 16 JJ Kotzé, 17 Oli Kebble, 18 Neethling Fouché, 19 Connor Evans, 20 Deon Fourie, 21 Hacjivah Dayimani, 22 Dewaldt Duvenage, 23 Jurie Matthee
Edinburgh: 15 Piers O’Conor, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Matt Currie, 12 James Lang, 11 Malelili Satala, 10 Ross Thompson, 9 Charlie Shiel, 8 Magnus Bradbury (c), 7 Dylan Richardson, 6 Liam McConnell, 5 Grant Gilchrist, 4 Marshall Sykes, 3 Paul Hill, 2 Ewan Ashman, 1 Pierre Schoeman.
Replacements: 16 Jerry Blyth-Lafferty, 17 Boan Venter, 18 Angus Williams, 19 Glen Young, 20 Freddy Douglas, 21 Ben Vellacott, 22 Mosese Tuipulotu, 23 Jack Brown
The Betting,
Average early show
Stormers -19.5 points at 9/10
Edinburgh +19.5 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 14 of the URC will be available on Brent Graham's betting blog which is available here.
Plays for Round 7 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.
