The Stormers travel to Parma to take on Zebre in the United Rugby Championship on Saturday and whilst the home side pulled off a shock victory last weekend, the visitors slipped to a disappointing defeat.
Zebre v Stormers, Saturday 5th October, Parma, KO 20:35 (South African time)
Referee: Chris Busby (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Fillipo Russo (Italy), Franco Rosella (Italy)
TMO: Mark Patton (Ireland)
Weather Forecast - Parma
Zebre:
Zebre finished bottom of the overall standings last season with 1 win, 1 draw and 16 defeats but their start to 2024/25 has been a lot more promising.
In Round 2 they took the scalp of Munster with a 42-33 victory at this venue. They scored 6 tries in total including a brace for both Trulla and Fusco to bag a bonus point. Zebre had started with a 22-17 defeat away to Cardiff and they come into Round 3 with 6 log points and in the top half of the standings.
In 2023/24 Zebre were beaten 31-7 by the Stormers in Stellenbosch in Round 7 whilst when hosting SA sides they lost 54-29 to the Bulls in Round 3 and their only victory came a round later, 12-10 at home to the Sharks.
In the outright betting to win the URC title Zebre are 875/1 rank outsiders with BoyleSports.
Stormers:
The Stormers had their problems on the early season tour in 2023/24 when they lost all 4 matches and their start to the new campaign didn't go well as they went down 37-24 to the Ospreys in Round 2. The Stormers were in the game until the closing stages but ended up leaving Bridgend empty handed, losing the try count 4-2, a disappointing outcome considering they started the match as marginal favourites with the bookmakers.
The Stormers won 12 and lost 6 of their regular season matches in 2023/24 and 59 log points was good enough for fifth place. That meant they had to travel in the play offs and they bowed out in the first knockout round after going down 27-10 to Glasgow Warriors who went on to win the tournament.
After this the Stormers visit Edinburgh before returning home for a Round 5 clash with Munster.
In the outright betting to win the URC title the Stormers are 13.5/1 with BoyleSports.
Team News
Zebre: 15 Geronimo Prisciantelli, 14 Jacopo Trulla, 13 Luca Morisi, 12 Fetuli Paea, 11 Simone Gesi, 10 Giacomo Da Re, 9 Alessandro Fusco, 8 Giacomo Ferrari, 7 Samuele Locatelli, 6 Davide Ruggeri, 5 Leonard Krumov, 4 Matteo Canali, 3 Matteo Nocera, 2 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo, 1 Danilo Fischetti (c)
Replacements: 16 Luca Bigi, 17 Luca Rizzoli, 18 Juan Pitinari, 19 Andrea Zambonin, 20 Giovanni Licata, 21 Gonzalo Garcia, 22 Scott Gregory, 23 Giovanni Montemauri
Stormers: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Dan du Plessis (captain), 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Jurie Matthee, 9 Paul de Wet, 8 Keke Morabe, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Marcel Theunissen, 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 JD Schickerling, 3 Neethling Fouche, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Sti Sithole.
Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Brok Harris, 18 Sazi Sandi, 19 Adre Smith, 20 Louw Nel, 21 Dewaldt Duvenage, 22 Warrick Gelant, 23 Angelo Davids
The Betting,
Update 05 October 09h39
Zebre +9.5 points at 9/10
Stormers -8.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
Posted 4 October 15h30
The Stormers will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing loss to the Ospreys last week. They won’t have it easy against a Zebre side riding high after last weeks win over Munster.
The handicap is has been pretty steady at +9.5 Zebre all week although I sense some money for the home team and have seen +8.5 in places.
The points line of 56.5 feels about right although of course I may yet get involved.
Holding fore for now as none of my bookmakers have the Stormers 1-12 option up yet.
Update 5 September 09h43
There has been little change to the handicap but books are out with the 1-12 margin and I am going to back the Stormers to win a competitive match
The points line is teady at 56.5
BET: 2 units Stormers by 1-12 points inclusive at 13/8 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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