On the back of a wide margin win in the United Rugby Championship last weekend the Lions are overwhelming favourites to follow up when they host the struggling Dragons in Johannesburg on Saturday.
Lions v Dragons, Saturday 2nd December, Johannesburg, KO 17:05 (South African time)
Referee: Andrea Piardi (Italy)
Assistant referees: Stephan Geldenhuys (South Africa), Hanru van Rooyen (South Africa)
TMO: Gianluca Gnecchi (Italy)
Weather Forecast – Johannesburg
Lions:
The Lions returned from tour and thrashed Zebre Parma 61-19 at Ellis Park in Round 6. They came flying out of the blocks and ran in a total of 9 tries.
The Lions only other victory this season came against Welsh opposition, 24-23 away to the Scarlets. They earned losing bonus points in 3 other tour matches, defeats at Ulster (24-17), at Benetton (15-10) and Edinburgh (17-16).
An opening round home game against the Stormers also ended up close with the Lions late fightback from 32-7 down at one stage in the second half coming up just short as they were beaten 35-33.
When they hosted Welsh opposition last season the Lions beat the Scarlets 32-15 and they also beat the Dragons 33-25.
The Lions come into this round in tenth spot with 14 log points, 4 points shy of a top half position.
Dragons:
The Dragons were in Durban in Round 6 for a clash with the Sharks and they were never in the contest, conceding 10 tries and crashing to a 69-14 defeat.
The Dragons also lost their first 4 matches of the tournament before opening their win account in Round 5 when they saw off the Ospreys 20-5 in a home derby fixture. They also earned losing bonus points in home defeats to Edinburgh and Cardiff in their first 2 matches and they finished well beaten at Munster and at home to Leinster. They have earned just 6 log points and are second bottom in the standings.
In SA last season the Dragons lost 33-25 at the Lions and 34-26 at the Stormers.
Team News
Lions: 15 Quan Horn, 14 Richard Kriel, 13 Henco van Wyk, 12 Marius Louw (captain), 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Sanele Nohamba, 9 Morne van den Berg, 8 Francke Horn, 7 Ruan Venter, 6 Emmanuel Tshituka, 5 Ruan Delport, 4 Ruben Schoeman, 3 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 2 PJ Botha, 1 JP Smith.
Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Corne Fourie, 18 Ruan Smith, 19 Willem Alberts, 20 Hanru Sirgel, 21 JC Pretorius, 22 Jordan Hendrikse, 23 Rabx Maxwane
Dragons: 15 Jordan Williams, 14 Rio Dyer, 13 Sio Tomkinson, 12 Steff Hughes (captain), 11 Ashton Hewitt, 10 Will Reed, 9 Rhodri Williams, 8 Aaron Wainwright, 7 Harri Keddie, 6 Sean Lonsdale, 5 George Nott, 4 Matthew Screech, 3 Lloyd Fairbrother, 2 Bradley Roberts, 1 Rhodri Jones.
Replacements: 16 James Benjamin, 17 Aki Seiuli, 18 Luke Yendle, 19 Joe Davies, 20 Ryan Woodman, 21 Dane Blacker, 22 Aneurin Owen, 23 Ewan Rosser
The Betting,
Lions -27.5 points at 9/10
Dragons +27.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
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This is a big handicap but I am not sure it is big enough and expect the Lions to win this game by plenty.
They are also prone to leaking points though and I am drawn to the total points line of 58.5. Both of these sides played in 80 pointers last week and conditions will once again be excellent.
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BET: 5 units over 58.5 points at 10/11 at Pokerbet*
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Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
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