The unbeaten Lions face a daunting task in the United Rugby Championship in Dublin on Saturday when they take on a Leinster side who have a foot perfect record so far.
Leinster v Lions, Saturday 26th October, Dublin, KO 18:15 (South African time)
Referee: Craig Evans (Wales)
Assistant referees: Peter Martin (Ireland), Stuart Gaffikin (Ireland)
TMO: Aled Griffiths (Wales)
Weather Forecast: Dublin
Leinster:
Leinster have played in all 5 rounds of matches and they have won all 5 games, earning a bonus point on each occasion.
In Round 4 they came away from Connacht with a 33-12 victory to go 7 points clear at the top of the standings. Earlier results saw Leinster start with a narrow win in Edinburgh (33-31) and more clear cut victories came at home to the Dragons (34-6), at Benetton (35-5) and at home to Munster (26-12).
When hosting SA sides last season Leinster beat the Sharks (34-13) and the Bulls (47-14) but an understrength side came unstuck in South Africa, losing to the Lions (44-12) and the Stormers (42-12).
In the outright betting to win the URC title Leinster are 0.71/1 favourites with BoyleSports
Lions:
The Lions kept their own 100% record in tact when they came away from Parma with a 10-9 win over Zebre last week. They were 12.5 point favourites on the main handicap line but torrential rain had a huge say and the Lions scored the only try of a tight encounter.
The Lions tour began in Newport in Round 4 and they got the better of the Dragons, 23-19. In earlier results a Round 3 clash with Edinburgh at Ellis Park saw the Lions dish out a 55-21 hiding and they began their URC campaign at home to Ulster in Round 2 when they came out on top 35-22.
With 4 wins from 4 games and 2 bonus points the Lions finished Round 5 in second position with 18 log points, 7 behind Leinster and level with Glasgow who are third (the Lions have a game in hand). The Bulls are fourth a further 3 points in arrears.
In the outright betting the Lions are 23/1 shots to win the URC title with BoyleSports
Team News
Leinster: 15 Hugo Keenan, 14 Andrew Osborne, 13 Hugh Cooney, 12 Robbie Henshaw, 11 James Lowe, 10 Sam Prendergast, 9 Luke McGrath, 8 Caelan Doris (c), 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Max Deegan, 5 Ryan Baird, 4 RG Snyman, 3 Rabah Slimani, 2 Gus McCarthy, 1 Michael Milne
Replacements: 16 Stephen Smyth, 17 Andrew Porter, 18 Thomas Clarkson, 19 Brian Deeny, 20 James Culhane, 21 Cormac Foley, 22 Ross Byrne, 23 Charlie Tector
Lions: 15 Quan Horn, 14 Richard Kriel, 13 Henco van Wyk, 12 Rynhardt Jonker, 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Kade Wolhuter, 9 Morné van den Berg, 8 Francke Horn (captain), 7 Jarod Cairns, 6 JC Pretorius, 5 Reinhard Nothnagel, 4 Ruben Schoeman, 3 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 2 PJ Botha, 1 Juan Schoeman.
Replacements: 16 Franco Marais, 17 Heiko Pohlmann, 18 RF Schoeman, 19 Ruan Delport, 20 Renzo du Plessis, 21 Sanele Nohamba, 22 Marius Louw, 23 Erich Cronje
The Betting,
Updated 26 Oct 0846
Leinster -17.5 points at 9/10
Lions +18.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
Posted 26 oct 08h46
There was some talk early in the week that the Irish players would not be available for Leinster but this is not the case and the market has been fairly stable all week at the -17.5 and -18.5 levels.
Leinster named a strong but not a full strength team and this was in line with what the market expected.
What has really impressed me about Leinster is their defence and I am going to go with the Lions to score 16 points or less. Leinsters last 4 games have seen them concede 12,12,5 and 6 points.
BET: 4 units Lions under 16.5 points at at Pokerbet*
*You can open a Pokerbet Account by clicking here
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
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