The Sharks find themselves at the bottom of the United Rugby Championship standings as they prepare to take on the Stormers in a local derby in Durban on Saturday.
Sharks v Stormers, Saturday 17th February, Durban, KO 17:05 (South African time)
Referee: Morne Ferreira (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Cwengile Jadezweni (South Africa), Stephan Geldenhuys (South Africa)
TMO: Ben Crous (South Africa)
Weather Forecast – Durban
Sharks:
The Sharks have lost 3 SA derby matches in the their last 3 URC outings. They let an 18-3 lead slip in their 20-18 defeat to the Lions in a home fixture on 6th January and prior to that they went down 16-15 to the Stormers in Cape Town at the end of December. The Sharks other United Rugby Championship derby clash came on 2nd December and they crashed and burned 44-10 to the Bulls at Loftus, conceding 6 tries in total.
After 9 rounds of matches the Sharks remain at the foot of the URC standings with a record of 1 win, 8 defeats and just the 9 log points.
In the outright betting the Sharks are 72/1 shots to win the tournament with BoyleSports
Stormers:
After turn of the year wins at home to the Bulls (26-20) and the Sharks (16-15) the Stormers have moved into the play off places and they now have a record of 5 wins and 4 defeats. With the exception of a 35-33 victory away to the Lions in Round 1 all their other wins came on home turf whlst they lost all 4 of their tour matches.
The Stormers have 26 log points and can be found in seventh spot, 4 points behind the fourth placed Bulls.
Last season's match ups with the Sharks saw the Stormers win 46-19 in Durban and 29-23 in Cape Town.
In the outright betting the Stormers are priced at 92/10 to win the URC title with BoyleSports
Team News
Sharks: 15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Werner Kok, 13 Lukhanyo Am (captain), 12 Francois Venter, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Curwin Bosch, 9 Jaden Hendrikse, 8 Phepsi Buthelezi, 7 Lappies Labuschagne, 6 James Venter, 5 Gerbrandt Grobler, 4 Le Roux Roets, 3 Hanro Jacobs, 2 Fez Mbatha, 1 Ox Nche.
Replacements: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Ntuthuko Mchunu, 18 Coenie Oosthuizen, 19 Hyron Andrews, 20 Vincent Tshituka, 21 Bradley Davids, 22 Siya Masuku, 23 Aphiwe Dyantyi
Stormers: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Ben Loader, 13 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 12 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Jurie Matthee, 9 Paul de Wet, 8 Hacjivah Dayimani, 7 Evan Roos, 6 Marcel Theunissen, 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 Adre Smith, 3 Neethling Fouche, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Ali Vermaak.
Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Sti Sithole, 18 Brok Harris, 19 Salmaan Moerat, 20 Ben-Jason Dixon, 21 Herschel Jantjies, 22 Wandisile Simelane, 23 Angelo Davids
The Betting,
Sharks +3.5 points at 9/10
Stormers -2.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
I handicapped this game Sharks +3.5 which is very much where the bookies have the line.
I don’t have a firm feel on the match result although leaning to a narrow Stormers win.
The points line looks fairly well set at 46.5 although leaning unders with humidity and some rain expected but nothing I am prepared to pull the trigger on at this stage.
Ultimately I expect a tense and close game with the match going down to the wire and I will take the “any Other result” option in the Tribet at WSB meaning I need to dodge either team winning by 7 points or more.
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BET: 2 units Tribet “Any Other result” at 14/10 at WSB
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Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
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