The Stormers will play two of their three remaining United Rugby Championship regular season matches overseas and their next assignment sees them take on the Dragons in Newport on Friday
Dragons v Stormers, Friday 10th May, Newport, KO 20:35 (South African time)
Referee: Chris Busby (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Maickel English (Wales) and Gareth Newman (Wales)
TMO: Olly Hodges (Ireland)
Weather Forecast - Newport
Dragons:
The Dragons are second bottom on the standings with 3 wins, 12 defeats and 16 log points against their name. Their wins came at home to the Ospreys (20-5), the Scarlets (13-12) and Zebre Parma (20-13).
On tour in SA earlier this season the Dragons were beaten by the Sharks (69-14) and the Lions (49-24) and when they hosted the Bulls in Round 13 they lost 31-10.
Stormers:
The Stormers come into Round 16 in fifth place with a record of 9 wins and 6 defeats. Their tally of 45 log points is 6 shy of the fourth placed Bulls but looking down only 6 points separates them from the Lions who are down in eleventh.
The Stormers beat a second string Leinster side 42-12 in Cape Town last time out but a round earlier they got it all wrong against Welsh opposition in another home fixture when they surprisingly went down 27-21 to the Ospreys.
In earlier matches against sides from Wales the Stormers beat the Scarlets (52-7) in Stellenbosch in Round 2 and they were beaten in Cardiff (31-24) in Round 6.
After this the Stormers visit Connacht and finish up at home to the Lions and in the outright betting the Stormers are priced at 10.5/1 to win the URC title with BoyleSports
Team News
Dragons: 15 Jordan Williams, 14 Rio Dyer, 13 Steff Hughes (c), 12 Aneurin Owen, 11 Chris Hollis, 10 Will Reed, 9 Dane Blacker, 8 Aaron Wainwright, 7 Harri Keddie, 6 Sean Lonsdale,5 George Nott, 4 Matthew Screech, 3 Chris Coleman, 2 Elliot Dee, 1 Rhodri Jones
Replacements: 16 Brodie Coghlan, 17 Rodrigo Martinez, 18 Dmitri Arhip, 19 James Benjamin, 20 Taine Basham, 21 Morgan Lloyd, 22 Angus O’Brien, 23 Sio Tomkinson
Stormers: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 13 Wandisile Simelane, 12 Dan du Plessis, 11 Angelo Davids, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Willie Engelbrecht, 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 Salmaan Moerat (c), 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Sti Sithole
Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Brok Harris, 18 Neethling Fouche, 19 Adre Smith, 20 Hacjivah Dayimani, 21 Stefan Ungerer, 22 Jean-Luc du Plessis, 23 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu
The Betting,
Dragons +14.5 points
Stormers -14.5 points
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
I handicapped this game Dragons +9.5 in my Sunday Night handicapping exercise on the Forum and although the line opened -10.5 there has been money for the Stormers and it is now +14.5.
Watching last nights edition of The Handicap there was arguments for both side of the line from the panelists and those in the live chat and I have decided to back my original instincts here and go with the home team on the cap.
The points line of 54.5 looks well set.
BET: 3 units Dragons +14.5 at 1.87/1 at BoyleSports
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
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