After finishing as runners up in the United Rugby Championship last season the Bulls start the new campaign against Zebre in Parma on Saturday
Zebre vs Bulls, Saturday 26th September, Parma, KO 18:30 (South African time)
Referee: Andrew Brace (IRFU)
Assistant Referees: Franco Rosella (FIR) and Alberto Favaro (FIR)
TMO: Olly Hodges (IRFU)
Weather Forecast - Parma
Bulls:
The Bulls made it the final of the URC last season but they were no match for Leinster in Dublin who beat them 36-7. The Bulls had beaten Munster in a home quarter final and then pulled off a fine win away to Glasgow Warrior’s before coming up well short at the final hurdle. In the regular season the Bulls finished fourth with a record of 12 wins and 6 defeats and improvement in their SA derby form will be a priority after they won just 2 and lost 4 in the SA Shield.
Early in their pre-season the Bulls hosted the All Blacks at Loftus in a RGR tour match and they were thumped 50-19.
After this the Bulls head to Ireland to take on Munster before they return home for a Round 3 derby at home to the Lions.
In the outright betting to win the URC title Sportingbet have the Bulls priced up as 7/2 second favourites behind Leinster who are 11/8
Zebre:
Zebre finished the 2025/26 season with the wooden spoon, winning just 2 of their matches and losing the other 16 and with just 15 log points they were 13 points behind the second bottom team.
Last season Zebre took on the Bulls at Loftus and they lost 54-19 whilst when they hosted South African sides they beat the Lions 22-20 but lost 31-13 to the Stormers.
We won’t see Zebre in South Africa until Rounds 10 and 11 in late January when they will face the Lions and the Stormers. In the outright betting to win the tournament Zebre can be backed at any price.
Line Ups:
Zebre: 15 Tommaso Allan, 14 Mirko Belloni, 13 Giulio Bertaccini, 12 Damiano Mazza, 11 Simone Gesi, 10 Giacomo Da Re, 9 Alessandro Fusco (c), 8 Giovanni Licata, 7 Samuele Locatelli, 6 Giacomo Ferrari, 5 Leonard Krumov, 4 Matteo Canali, 3 Juan Ignacio Castellano, 2 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo, 1 Federico Pisani.
Replacements: 16 Francisco Minervino, 17 Sergio Pelliccioli, 18 Filippo Alongi, 19 Franco Carrera, 20 Davide Ruggeri, 21 Thomas Dominguez, 22 Marco Zanon, 23 Giovanni Montemauri.
Bulls: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Sebastian de Klerk, 13 Stedman Gans, 12 Harold Vorster, 11 Stravino Jacobs, 10 Curwin Bosch, 9 Paul de Wet, 8 Jeandre Rudolph, 7 Hanro Liebenberg, 6 Marcell Coetzee (c), 5 Reinhardt Ludwig, 4 Ruan Vermaak, 3 Francois Klopper, 2 Juann Else, 1 Alu Tshakweni.
Replacements: 16 Janco Uys, 17 Dylan Smith, 18 Mornay Smith, 19 JF van Heerden, 20 Nizaam Carr, 21 Zak Burger, 22 Cheswill Jooste, 23 Hakeem Kunene
The Betting,
Average early show
Zebre +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.
Bets:
Tips, more news and betting angles for the URC matches will be available on Brent Graham's betting blog which is 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.
