The Bulls clash with Zebre in the United Rugby Championship at Loftus on Saturday and the hosts are firm favourites to take another step towards securing a home play off.

 

 

 

Bulls v Zebre, Saturday 29th March, Pretoria, KO 14:45 (South African time)

 

Referee: Mike Adamson (Scotland)
Assistant Referees: Cwengile Jadezweni (South Africa), Sean Muller (South Africa)
TMO: Sam Grove-White (Scotland)

 

Weather Forecast – Pretoria

 

 

Bulls:

 

After a nail biting victory over the log leaders last week the Bulls remain in third position with a record of 9 wins and 4 defeats. They have a tally of 45 log points, 4 shy of Glasgow and now 13 adrift of Leinster, Looking down the fourth placed Sharks are 1 points back and fifth placed Cardiff are 10 adrift.

 

Round 13 saw the Bulls land an after the siren penalty to end Leinster's 100% record, edging the contest 21-20. Round 12 had seen the Bulls go down 19-16 at home to the Stormers and they also lost to the Sharks at Loftus recently. One earlier match against Italian opposition this season saw the Bulls win 17-15 at Benetton in Round 6.

 

After this the Bulls switch focus to the Challenge Cup Round of 16 where they will visit Avrion Bayonnais. The remainder of the URC regular season sees the Bulls visit Munster and Glasgow before they finish up with home games against Cardiff and the Dragons.

 

In the outright betting to win the URC title the Bulls are 11/2 second favourites with WSB.

 

Zebre:

 

Zebre have only the Dragons below them in the current standings although their record of 5 wins and 8 defeats for 27 log points means they are only 6 shy of the 8^th placed Stormers.

 

Despite starting last week's clash with the Sharks in Durban as 22.5 point underdogs on the bookmakers main handicap line Zebre were only denied victory by a late try with the Sharks eventually coming out on top 35-34.

 

In Rounds 10-12 Zebre reeled off 3 straight wins, getting the better of Ulster (15-14) in Belfast, they won in Edinburgh (22-17) and at home to the Dragons (31-21).

In earlier matches against SA opposition they lost at home to the Stormers (36-5) in Round 3 and in Round 5 another fixture against the Lions saw them edged out 10-9. They also lost a Challenge Cup pool game against the Cheetahs which was staged in Amsterdam in January (22-18).

 

Team News

 

Bulls: 15 Deon Williams, 14 Sergeal Petersen, 13 David Kriel, 12 Harold Vorster, 11 Stravino Jacobs, 10 Keagan Johannes, 9 Zak Burger, 8 Celimpilo Gumene, 7 Jannes Kirsten, 6 Marcell Coetzee (captain), 5 JF van Heerden, 4 Ruan Vermaak, 3 Mornay Smith, 2 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 1 Alulutho Tshakweni

Replacements: 16 Simphiwe Matanzima, 17 Akker van der Merwe, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 Ruan Nortje, 20 Marco van Staden, 21 Nizaam Carr, 22 Embrose Papier, 23 Boeta Chamberlain

 

Zebre: 15 Geronimo Prisciantelli, 14 Jacopo Trulla, 13 Fetuli Paea, 12 Enrico Lucchin, 11 Alessandro Gesi, 10 Giovanni Montemauri, 9 Alessandro Fusco, 8 Davide Ruggeri, 7 Iacopo Bianchi, 6 Guido Volpi, 5 Leonard Krumov, 4 Matteo Canali, 3 Muhamed Hasa, 2 Luca Bigi (c), 1 Luca Rizzoli

Replacements: 16 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo, 17 Paolo Buonfiglio, 18 Juan Pitinari, 19 Francesco Ruffolo, 20 Bautista Stavile, 21 Ratko Jelic, 22 Giacomo Da Re, 23 Filippo Drago

 

 

The Betting,

 

Updated 29 March 00h27

Bulls -21.5 points at 9/10

Zebre +21.5 points at 9/10

 

Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.

 

Betting Angle

 

Posted 28 March 07h40

This line has been pretty stable all week around -20.5 and is close to where I set it at -22.5 

 I am leaning Bulls as I think that Zebre may be stretched to have another strong game after an impressive run but I will wait for team news and points lines. 

 

URC BLOG - click here for bets on all URC games 

 

Posted 29 March 00h27 

The points lines are out and I am going to keep this simple. There is 49.5 on offer and the overs is cracking value. 

Conditions should be good despite some rain in the week and I see no reason why this should be a tight game

 

BET: 7 units over 49.5 points at 9/10 at Pokerbet 

 

Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.

 

 

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