With one win and one defeat against their name the Bulls visit Zebre in Parma in Round 3 of the United Rugby Championship on Saturday
Zebre Parma v Bulls, Saturday 4th November, Parma, KO 15:00 (South African time)
Referee: Frank Murphy (Ireland)
Assistant Referees: Clara Munarini (Italy) and Manuel Bottino (Italy)
TMO: Olly Hodges (Ireland)
Weather Forecast - Parma
Zebre:
Zebre Parma went the whole of last season without a victory but although they have lost their first 2 matches they have showed huge improvement.
In Round 2 they were edged out 34-31 by the Ospreys in Swansea although they won the try count 5-4. Zebre started their tournament at home to Ulster who had to dig deep to come out on top 40-36. Both sides scored 6 tries and Ulster were hanging on at the death.
At home to South African opposition last season Zebre lost to the Sharks 42-37 and the Stormers 37-20. In SA they crashed 78-12 to the Bulls and went down 50-35 at the Lions.
Bulls:
After starting their campaign with a 63-21 hiding of the Scarlets at Loftus the Bulls were unable to follow up in their first tour match as they went down 26-19 to Ulster in Round 2.
The Bulls were 14-0 down at half time in Belfast but fought back to 14-12 and although the they scored 3 tries to 2 a lack of discipline punished by penalties was their undoing and they had to settle for a losing bonus point.
Against Italian opposition last season the Bulls won 44-22 at Benetton and thumped Zebre 78-12 at Loftus.
After this the Bulls will visit Cardiff and then Edinburgh and in the outright betting they are 16/1 shots to win the tournament with BoyleSports
Team News
Zebre: 5 Lorenzo Pani, 14 Scott Gregory, 13 Fetuli Paea, 12 Enrico Lucchin, 11 Simone Gesi, 10 Geronimo Prisciantelli (captain), 9 Alessandro Fusco, 8 Davide Ruggeri, 7 Iacopo Bianchi, 6 Guido Volpi, 5 Andrea Zambonin, 4 Dylan de Leeuw, 3 Muhamed Hasa, 2 Marco Manfredi, 1 Danilo Fischetti.
Replacements: 16 Giampietro Ribaldi, 17 Luca Rizzoli, 18 Ion Neculai, 19 Leonard Krumov, 20 Luca Andreani, 21 Taina Fox-Matamua, 22 Gonzalo Garcia, 23 Jacopo Trulla
Bulls: 15 Devon Williams, 14 Sebastian de Klerk, 13 Stedman Gans, 12 David Kriel, 11 Sergeal Petersen, 10 Johan Goosen, 9 Zak Burger, 8 Cameron Hanekom, 7 Elright Louw, 6 Marcell Coetzee (c), 5 Ruan Nortje (c), 4 Janko Swanepoel, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Akker van der Merwe, 1 Simphiwe Matanzima
Replacements: 16 Johan Grobbelaar, 17 Dylan Smith, 18 Mornay Smith, 19 Reinhardt Ludwig, 20 Nizaam Carr, 21 Embrose Papier, 22 Chris Smith, 23 Wandisile Simelane
The Betting,
Zebre +14.5 points at 9/10
Bulls -14.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Betting Angle
This handicap has been stable this week having opened Zebre +14.5 a couple of points higher than I was expecting having gone +12.5 when I opened the forum thread.
Zebre have beaten both handicaps in the opening weeks but I think they will find the Bulls too physical for them. The cap is about right though and I am going to wait for the points lines before betting. The weather looks ok in the afternoon but I will keep an eye on it as there is rain forecast in the evening.
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14h45 04 November
Vey late out with this one but a small interest Bulls over 5.5 tries
BET: 3 units Bulls over 5.5 tries at 21/20 at Boylesports*
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Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
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