Loftus Versfeld is the venue for the first of two international rugby tests between the Spirngboks and Ireland, the game takes place on Saturday and South Africa are the bookmakers favourites.
South Africa v Ireland, Saturday 6th July, Pretoria, KO 17:00 (South African time)
Referee: Luke Pearce (England)
Assistant referees: Karl Dickson (England), Mike Adamson (Scotland)
TMO: Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
Weather Forecast – Pretoria
South Africa:
The Boks tuned up for this series with a test match against Wales at Twickenham last Saturday and they came out on top 41-13. At half time the lead was just a single point (14-13) but South Africa powered away in the second half and they scored 5 tries in total to one from Wales.
Both South Africa and Wales were missing some key men last week but for this opener in the series Rassie Erasmus has brought back some big guns including Kolisi, Kolbe, Pollard and Snyman.
The second test takes place in Durban next weekend and after that the Boks host Portugal before the Rugby Championship gets underway in August.
Ireland:
Ireland return to action for the first time since the Six Nations earlier this year. They came into the tournament as favourites having won the Grand Slam a year earlier and they successfully defended the title finishing 5 points clear of France. A 23-22 defeat to England at Twickenham in Round 4 torpedoed hopes of another Slam whilst their four other 6N matches ended in victory; in France (38-17), at home to Italy (36-0), at home to Wales (31-7) and at home to Scotland (17-13).
In RWC 2023 Ireland won all of their pool matches including a 13-9 win over the Boks in Paris but they fell at the quarter final stage, going down 28-24 to the All Blacks.
Team News
South Africa: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Kwagga Smith, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Ox Nche.
Replacements: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Salmaan Moerat, 20 RG Snyman, 21 Marco van Staden, 22 Grant Williams, 23 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu
Ireland: 15 Jamie Osborne, 14 Calvin Nash, 13 Robbie Henshaw, 12 Bundee Aki, 11 James Lowe, 10 Jack Crowley, 9 Craig Casey, 8 Caelan Doris, 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Peter O’Mahony (captain), 5 Tadhg Beirne, 4 Joe McCarthy, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 2 Dan Sheehan, 1 Andrew Porter.
Replacements: 16 Ronan Kelleher, 17 Cian Healy, 18 Finlay Bealham, 19 James Ryan, 20 Ryan Baird, 21 Conor Murray, 22 Ciaran Frawley, 23 Garry Ringrose
Recent Head to Head
Prior to the aforementioned RWC 2023 pool stage match when Ireland hosted the Boks in Dublin in November 2022 they came out on top 19-16.
In November 2017 Ireland thrashed the Boks 38-3, also in Dublin.
Ireland last toured South Africa in 2016, they won the first test in Cape Town 26-20, the second test saw the Boks come out on top 32-26 and South Africa then clinched the series with a 19-13 win in Port Elizabeth.
The Betting
South Africa -7.5 points
Ireland +8.5 points
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
The handicap was -5.5 SA earlier in the week but the money has come for the home team and the line is now -7.5 and even -8.5 in places.
I won't argue with the home money as I think they will win this but I reckon it will be close and I agree with The Understaker on last nights show that the SA 1-12 option could be the play.
The total points line is 50.5 and that looks well set to me.
My 2nd interest will be a speculative play that ireland get out the blocks quickly and lead at the break but the Boks (I really like the bench) calw it back and win.
Bet: 2 units Boks by under 12.5 points at 15/10 at WSB
Bet: 1 unit HT/FT Ireland/SA at 5/1 at at Sportingbet*
*If you don’t have a Sportingbet account please use this link to open one
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
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