The Bulls host Munster in the United Rugby Championship at Loftus on Saturday, a top 4 clash and the home side starts as favourites.
Bulls v Munster, Saturday 20th April, Pretoria, KO 17:05 (South African time)
Referee: Adam Jones (Wales)
Assistant referees: AJ Jacobs (Ireland) and Dylen November (Ireland)
TMO: Craig Evans (WRU)
Weather Forecast – Pretoria
Bulls:
The Bulls return to URC action after contesting the knockout rounds of the Champions Cup. They were 59-19 winners at home to Lyon in the R016 but after leaving a number of big guns at home they went down 59-22 to the Saints in Northampton in last weekend's quarter finals.
The focus is now purely on the URC and the Bulls finished the Round 13 in third spot with a record of 9 wins and 4 defeats and their tally of 45 log points is 4 shy of Glasgow Warriors and 9 behind Leinster.
The Bulls lost 47-14 to Leinster in Dublin in Round 13, they also lost 26-19 at Ulster back in Round 2 and one other match against Irish opposition this season saw them thrash Connacht 53-27 at Loftus in Round 6. The Bulls record at Loftus is of the 100% variety.
In the outright betting the Bulls are now 15/2 joint second favourites to win the tournament with BoyleSports
Munster:
Defending champions Munster are fourth in the standings and their record of 8 wins, 1 draw and 4 defeats puts them 2 points behind the Bulls in fourth place.
Munster are on a 4 match winning streak in the URC whilst earlier in the tournament they completed home wins over the Sharks (34-21) and the Stormers (10-3).
Munster beat the Stormers in the Grand Final in Cape Town last season and they also beat the Bulls (31-17) in the regular 2022/23 season.
In the Champions Cup Ro16 Munster lost 24-14 away to Northampton Saints on 7th April and they were not in action last weekend.
In the outright betting Munster are also 15/2 joint second favourites to win the tournament with BoyleSports who make Leinster 0.54/1 favourites.
Team News
Bulls: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 13 Canan Moodie, 12 David Kriel, 11 Sebastien de Klerk, 10 Johan Goosen, 9 Embrose Papier, 8 Elrigh Louw (c), 7 Reinhardt Ludwig, 6 Cameron Hanekom, 5 JF van Heerden, 4 Ruan Vermaak, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Gerhard Steenekamp
Replacements: 16 Akker van der Merwe, 17 Simphiwe Matanzima, 18 Mornay Smith, 19 Janko Swanepoel, 20 Mpilo Gumede, 21 Zak Burger, 22 Chris Smith, 23 Devon Williams
Munster: 15 Simon Zebo, 14 Calvin Nash, 13 Antoine Frisch, 12 Alex Nankivell, 11 Shane Daly, 10 Jack Crowley, 9 Conor Murray, 8 Jack O’Donoghue, 7 Alex Kendellen, 6 Peter O’Mahony, 5 Tadhg Beirne (c), 4 RG Snyman, 3 Stephen Archer, 2 Niall Scannell, 1 Jeremy Loughman
Replacements: 16 Eoghan Clarke, 17 Josh Wycherley, 18 Oli Jager, 19 Tom Ahern, 20 Gavin Coombes, 21 Craig Casey, 22 Joey Carbery, 23 John Hodnett
The Betting,
Bulls -10.5 points at 9/10
Munster +10.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
This handicap has come in to Bulls -10.5 from an opening call (locally) of -12.5. The support for Munster is on the back of news they are sending a strong squad out to SA.
I think this game is well capped and once again am leaning towards the points markets where I really like the over 49.5.
I expect both teams to take their points with the game possibly opening up late on.
In the Bulls last 10 home matches in all competitions this bet would have arrived 9 times.
BET: 5 units over 49.5 points at 87/100 at Pokerbet*
*Pokerbet are generally 1st to market with rugby points lines – click here to open an account
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Subscribe to our free weekly betting mailer which will include our best and value bets below.
