After a really poor tour the Stormers return home for a United Rugby Championship clash with Zebre Parma in Stellenbosch on Saturday and the pre-match handicap is a big number.
Stormers v Zebre Parma, Saturday 2nd December, Stellenbosch, KO 19:15 (South African time)
Referee: Eoghan Cross (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Christopher Allison (South Africa), Paul Mente (South Africa)
TMO: Frank Murphy (Ireland)
Weather Forecast – Stellenbosch
Stormers:
The Stormers lost all 4 of their tour matches, most recently going down 31-24 to Cardiff. At Glasgow Warriors in Round 3 they lost 20-9 and a Round 4 visit to Treviso to face Benetton was priced up as a choice game by the bookmakers and the Stormers lost 20-17. A Round 5 clash away to Munster was a repeat of the last season's final and the Stormers were beaten 10-3.
The Stormers started with 2 bonus point wins, away to the Lions (35-33) and against the Scarlets at this venue (52-7).
The Stormers have now won 2 and lost 4 of their first 6 matches and with 13 log points they are twelfth spot on the log.
As far as last season's form against Italian opposition is concerned the Stormers won 30-27 at Zebre and 38-22 at home to Benetton.
In the outright betting the Stormers have now drifted to 8/1 to win the tournament with BoyleSports
Zebre:
Zebre's tour of SA started in Johannesburg in Round 6 when they crashed to a 61-19 defeat, conceding a total of 9 tries.
This is already their fourth match against South African opposition. When they hosted the Bulls in Round 3 they finished well beaten (54-29) but a round later they edged out the Sharks 12-10 in another home game. Zebre have also picked up losing bonus points at home to Ulster and away to the Ospreys and they drew 22-22 at home to Cardiff.
Zebre are now in thirteenth spot with 1 win, 1 draw and 4 defeats and they have 11 log points against their name.
In SA last season Zebre crashed 78-12 at the Bulls and went down 50-35 at the Lions.
Team News
Stormers: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Courtnall Skosan, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Damian Willemse, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Hacjivah Dayimani, 6 Deon Fourie, 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 Adre Smith, 3 Neethling Fouche (captain), 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Kwenzo Blose.
Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Ali Vermaak, 18 Brok Harris, 19 Connor Evans, 20 Marcel Theunissen, 21 Paul de Wet, 22 Clayton Blommetjies, 23 Suleiman Hartzenberg.
Zebre Parma: 15 Geronimo Prisciantelli, 14 Jacopo Trulla, 13 Luca Morisi, 12 Enrico Lucchin, 11 Simone Gesi, 10 Giovanni Montemauri, 9 Alessandro Fusco, 8 Taina Fox-Matamua, 7 Bautista Stavile, 6 Guido Volpi, 5 Andrea Zambonin, 4 Matteo Canali, 3 Matteo Nocera, 2 Luca Bigi (captain), 1 Danilo Fischetti.
Replacements: 16 Giampietro Ribaldi, 17 Luca Rizzoli, 18 Muhamed Hasa, 19 Leonard Krumov, 20 Giovanni Licata, 21 Thomas Dominguez, 22 Franco Smith Jr, 23 Lorenzo Pani
The Betting,
Stormers -32.5 points at 9/10
Zebre +33.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
This is a massive handicap and I think that Zebre can beat it.
My bet though will be on Zebre points overs and although I have seen a total points line of 62.5 I am still waiting for a Zebre points line and the bet will follow Friday night or Saturday morning.
Based on the cap and points quote I am expecting Zebre points to be 15.5
Update: Sat 2 Dec 07h30
Zebre points is 15.5 as predicted but looking at this Stormers line up I am having 2nd thoughts. In fact I am battling for a bet on this one and am settling on over 9.5 total tries at 11/10.
The points line is 63.5 and I don't think there will be penalties. In that case you need at least 10 tries to deliver the overs and even then you ould miss if there are 4 or more missed conversions.
Over 9.5 tries is trading at 11/10 and that looks the better play although I am not getting carried away.
Bet: 3 units over 9.5 tries at 11/10 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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