The Stormers are badly in need of a boost to their United Rugby Championship campaign and they return from tour to take on old foes Munster in Cape Town on Saturday
Stormers v Munster, Saturday 19th October, Cape Town, KO 18:00 (South African time)
Referee: Mike Adamson (Scotland)
Assistant referees: Aimee Barrett-Theron (South Africa) & AJ Jacobs (South Africa)
TMO: Hollie Davidson (Scotland)
Weather Forecast – Cape Town
Stormers:
This is the first home game of the season for the Stormers and they come into it at the bottom of the standings with a tally of 5 log points after a tour of Europe delivered 1 win and 2 defeats.
In Round 4 the Stormers were thumped 38-7 in Edinburgh and they were never at the races. Their only win so far came in Parma (35-6) against Zebre in Round 3 where they scored 4 tries to 1 to secure a bonus point. In their first action of the season they went down 37-24 to the Ospreys in Round 2.
The Stormers now renew rivalry with Munster who beat them 19-14 in the final of the 2022/23 campaign. When the teams met in 2023/24 the Stormers lost 10-3 in Limerick.
In the outright betting to win the URC title the Stormers are 19/1 with BoyleSports.
Munster:
Munster have had a mixed start and they finished Round 4 in seventh position with 2 wins and 2 defeats against their name and they have earned 11 log points.
Their wins both came on home turf, edging out Connacht (35-33) in Round 1 and seeing off the Ospreys (23-0) in Round 3. They were on the wrong end of a shock result in Round 2 when they were beaten 42-33 away to Zebre Parma and last weekend they went down 26-12 away to log leaders Leinster.
In SA last season Munster beat the Bulls (27-22) at Loftus and followed up with a win (33-13) over the Lions at Ellis Park. They went on to reach the semi finals where they lost at home to Glasgow Warriors who went on to win the tournament.
In the outright betting Munster are 78/10 third favourites to win the URC title with BoyleSports
Team News
Stormers : 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Dan du Plessis (c), 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Damian Willemse, 9 Paul de Wet, 8 Keke Morabe, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Marcel Theunissen, 5 JD Schickerling, 4 Adre Smith, 3 Neethling Fouche, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Sti Sithole
Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Brok Harris, 18 Sazi Sandi, 19 Ruben van Heerden, 20 Dave Ewers, 21 Louw Nel, 22 Herschel Jantjies, 23 Jurie Matthee
Munster: 15 Mike Haley, 14 Calvin Nash, 13 Tom Farrell, 12 Alex Nankivell, 11 Shane Daly, 10 Jack Crowley, 9 Conor Murray, 8 Jack O’Donoghue, 7 Alex Kendellen, 6 Tom Ahern, 5 Tadhg Beirne (c), 4 Jean Kleyn, 3 John Ryan, 2 Niall Scannell, 1 Jeremy Loughman
Replacements: 16 Eoghan Clarke, 17 Kieran Ryan, 18 Stephen Archer, 19 Fineen Wycherley, 20 Ruadhán Quinn, 21 Ethan Coughlan, 22 Billy Burns, 23 Seán O’Brien
The Betting,
Update 18 Oct 10h36
Stormers -6.5 points at 9/10
Munster +6.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
Posted 18 Oct 10h38
The handicap opened -7.5 Stormers but money has come for the visitors and there is now -4.5 and some -5.5 available.
Team news will be interesting but the bet I fancy here is more dependant on the weather which looks good.
Total points is currently 45.5 and I expect this to shift out when more bookies price up.
The sides last 2 fixtures have only had 13 points (in Munster 2023) and 33 points (the final in Cape Town) but I expect a far more expansive game and this points line is too low to resist. I expect this line to start in the high 40’s.
BET: 7 units over 45.5 points at 10/11 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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