The Lions travel to Wales to take on Cardiff in the United Rugby Championship on Friday night and only two log points separates these sides in the play off positions.
Cardiff v Lions, Friday 21st March, Cardiff, KO 21:35 (South African time)
Referee: Federico Vedovelli (Italy)
Assistant Referees: Adam Jones (Wales), Aaron Parry (Wales)
TMO: Stefano Roscini Italy)
Weather Forecast - Cardiff
Cardiff:
All teams have played 12 of the 18 rounds of matches before the play offs and Cardiff come into the weekend in sixth place with a record of 5 wins, 1 draw and 6 defeats for 31 log points.
They haven't won since Round 8 when they edged a derby away to the Dragons. Since then Cardiff drew at home to the Ospreys (13-13), lost at home to the Sharks (42-22), went down at Connacht (24-19) and away to Leinster (42-24).
Aside from the defeat to the Sharks Cardiff faced South African opposition in the Challenge Cup pool stage and they beat the Cheetahs 26-10 at The Arms Park to help them on their way to a Round of 16 visit to Connacht. They will be in SA for Rounds 17 and 18 of the URC when they come up against the Bulls and finally the Stormers.
Cardiff are 250/1 shots in the outright betting to win the URC title
Lions:
The Lions are 8th in the standings with 6 wins and 6 defeats against their name and they are 1 point behind Edinburgh, 2 shy of Cardiff and 4 behind fifth placed Munster. The gap to the fourth placed Sharks now stands at 8 points and looking down, there are a whole host of clubs right on their heels in the race for a play off spot.
The Lions head overseas on the back of a string of SA derby matches, most recently consecutive games against the Sharks whom they beat 38-14 in Joburg before losing 25-22 in Durban.
The Lions have won in Wales this season, beating the Dragons 23-19 in Round 4. After this they visit Glasgow and they are also in the Challenge Cup Ro16 where they will visit Edinburgh a week later. The Lions finish up the URC regular season with 4 consecutive home games against Benetton, Connacht, the Scarlets and the Ospreys.
In the outright betting the Lions are 50/1 shots to win the URC title with WSB.
Team News
Cardiff: tbc
Lions: tbc
The Betting,
Updated 19 March 09h57
Cardiff -4.5 points at 9/10
Lions +4.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
Bets on all URC matches will be posted in the URC Round 13 Betting Blog
Posted 19 March 10h01
The bookies and I are in agreement on this one and the -4.5 Cardiff has held firm since opening on Monday. For that reason I don't see any need for early involvement and will wait for team news and points lines.
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Bet: to follow
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
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