The Lions have three wins from three United Rugby Championship outings and their next assignment comes away to Zebre Parma in the first of Saturday's Round 5 matches.
Zebre v Lions, Saturday 19th October, Parma, KO 13:30 (South African time)
Referee: Ben Connor (Wales)
Assistant referees: Ben Whitehouse (Wales) and Rhys Jones (Wales)
TMO: Aled Griffiths (Wales)
Weather Forecast - Parma
Zebre:
Zebre have 1 win and 3 defeats against their name and with 6 log points only the Stormers are below them in the standings.
They went down 33-3 away to Glasgow Warriors in Round 4 and a week earlier they lost 36-5 at home to the Stormers. However in Round 2 they took the scalp of Munster with a 42-33 victory at this venue, scoring 6 tries to bag a bonus point. Zebre had started with a 22-17 defeat away to Cardiff.
In 2023/24 when hosting SA sides Zebre lost 54-29 to the Bulls in Round 3 and their only victory came a round later, 12-10 at home to the Sharks. They took on the Lions in Johannesburg in Round 6 and crashed to a 61-19 defeat.
In the outright betting to win the URC title you can write your own ticket Zebre who are the rank outsiders
Lions:
The Lions tour began in Newport last week and they got the better of the Dragons, 23-19. They led 13-12 at half time and although they lost the try count 3-2 the Lions held on to their 100% record.
In earlier results a Round 3 clash with Edinburgh at Ellis Park saw the Lions dish out a 55-21 hiding and virtually all the damage was done in the first half with the Lions scoring 7 (of their 8) tries to take a 48-0 lead into the break. The Lions began their URC campaign at home to Ulster in Round 2 and they came out on top 35-22, scoring 5 tries in total.
With two bonus point wins and the hard fought victory at the Dragons the Lions finished Round 4 in third position with 14 log points, ahead of the Bulls on points difference, 2 points shy of Glasgow Warriors and 6 behind Leinster who they will visit next week.
In the outright betting the Lions are 26/1 shots to win the URC title with BoyleSports , less than half their pre-tournament price.
Team News
Zebre: 15 Geronimo Prisciantelli, 14 Jacopo Trulla, 13 Giulio Bertaccini, 12 Luca Morisi, 11 Simone Gesi, 10 Giovanni Montemauri, 9 Alessandro Fusco, 8 Giovanni Licata, 7 Iacopo Bianchi, 6 Davide Ruggeri, 5 Andrea Zambonin, 4 Matteo Canali, 3 Juan Pitinari, 2 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo, 1 Danilo Fischetti (c)
Replacements: 16 Luca Bigi, 17 Luca Rizzoli, 18 Matteo Nocera, 19 Leonard Krumov, 20 Luca Andreani, 21 Giacomo Milano, 22 Gonzalo Garcia, 23 Fetuli Paea
Lions: 15 Quan Horn, 14 Richard Kriel, 13 Henco van Wyk, 12 Marius Louw, 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Sanele Nohamba, 9 Morne van den Berg, 8 Francke Horn (c), 7 Jarod Cairns, 6 JC Pretorius, 5 Ruben Schoeman, 4 Reinhard Nothnagel, 3 Conraad van Vuuren, 2 Jaco Visagie, 1 Juan Schoeman
Replacements: 16 PJ Botha, 17 Heiko Pohlmann, 18 RF Schoeman, 19 Ruan Delport, 20 Renzo du Plessis, 21 Nico Steyn, 22 Erich Cronje, 23 Rabz Maxwane
The Betting,
Updated 19 October 10h15
Zebre +13.5 points at 9/10
Lions -12.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
Posted 18 Oct 10h23
This handicap has been stable at Lions -13.5 all week. I am leaning to Zebre on the handicap but will wait for team news before betting.
Update 11 Oct 16h08
Teams are out but no real movement on the cap. Waiting points lines which should be low as there is serious rain expected before and during the mact. Still leaning Zebre plus.
Update 19 Oct 10h16
There is plenty of rain about and the points line is generally 44.5 and after all that waiting I am not going to get involved in the points and will back Zebre to beat the handicap which is generally 12.5 but 13.5 at Hollies
BET: 4 units Zebre +13.5 at 9/10 at HollywoodBets*
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Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
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