The first action in Round 4 of the Rugby World Cup comes from Lyon on Wednesday where Uruguay clash with Namibia in Pool A
Uruguay v Namibia, Wednesday 27th September, Lyon, KO 17:45 (South African time)
Referee: Mathieu Raynal (FFR)
Assistant Referees: Nic Berry (RA), Chris Busby (IRFU)
TMO: Ben Whitehouse (WRU)
Weather Forecast - Lyon
Uruguay:
Uruguay have lost both of their matches and have yet to earn a log point but they have emerged with credit from their displays.
In their second outing they lost 37-17 to Italy but they made the most of a numerical advantage in the first half to lead 17-7 at half time before the Italian's came storming back to score 4 of their 5 tries after the break. The pre-match handicap settled in the region of 24 points so Uruguay obliged for plus backers for the second match in a row.
Uruguay faced host nation France in their first match but despite being given more than 50 points start on the bookmakers main handicap line, they were only beaten 27-12. They were just 13-5 down at half time and it was only when a much changed Les Bleus side scored their third and final try 7 minutes from the end that the game was beyond the South Americans.
In RWC 2019 in Japan the Uruguayans pulled off a surprise win over Fiji (30-37) in their first pool match but were then beaten by Georgia (33-7), Australia (45-10) and Wales (35-13)
After this Uruguay will come up against the All Blacks in what will almost certainly be their last action of the tournament.
Namibia:
Namibia have lost all 3 of their matches by wide margins and this is their final shot at earning a first ever victory at the RWC finals.
They went down 96-0 to France in their most recent outing and prior to that they were thrashed 71-3 by the All Blacks. The handicap for both those matches was around 70 points whilst in their opening game they lost 52-8 to Italy when they were +33.5 point underdogs.
Team News
Uruguay: 15 Baltazar Amaya; 14 Bautista Basso, 13 Felipe Arcos Perez, 12 Andres Vilaseca (capt), 11 Nicolas Freitas; 10 Felipe Etcheverry, 9 Santiago Arata; 8 Carlos Deus, 7 Santiago Civetta, 6 Manuel Ardao; 5 Manuel Leindekar, 4 Felipe Aliaga; 3 Diego Arbelo, 2 German Kessler, 1 Mateo Sanguinetti
Substitutes: 16 Guillermo Pujadas, 17 Facundo Gattas, 18 Reinaldo Piussi, 19 Juan Manuel Rodrguez, 20 Eric Dosantos, 21 Agustin Ormaechea, 22 Felipe Berchesi, 23 Juan Manuel Alonso
Namibia: 15 Cliven Loubser; 14 Gerswin Mouton, 13 Alcino Izaacs, 12 Danco Burger, 11 JC Greyling; 10 Tiaan Swanepoel, 9 Damian Stevens; 8 Richard Hardwick, 7 Tjiuee Uanivi (capt), 6 Prince Gaoseb; 5 Tiaan De Klerk, 4 Adriaan Ludick; 3 Johan 'Aranos' Coetzee, 2 Torsten Van Jaarsveld, 1 Jason Benade
Substitutes: 16 Louis van der Westhuizen, 17 Desiderius Sethie, 18 Haitembu Shikufa, 19 PJ Van Lill, 20 Max Katjijeko, 21 Adriaan Booysen, 22 Jacques Theron, 23 Andre van der Bergh
The Betting
08h45 27 September
Uruguay -17.5 points at 9/10
Namibia +17.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
This handicap has been stable since Monday and it looks well set in my opinion. Uruguay have punched above their weight but Namibia should be well up for this one and it is essentially both teams only chance to win a game.
With that in mind I expect the 3 pointers to be taken and I am going to bet that we get 6 tries or less in this one.
These crunch matches have tended to be tight and I m hoping that neither team draws clear early.
Stay close to our forum thread where I will post any outright points plays on this game
BET: 4 units under 6.5 tries at 10/11 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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