The Bulls host Benetton in the final round of United Rugby Championship regular season at Loftus on Saturday and the home side need a win to secure home advantage in the first of the knockout rounds.
Bulls v Benetton, Saturday 16th May, Pretoria, KO 16:00 (South African time)
Referee: tbc
Assistant Referees: tbc
TMO: tbc
Weather Forecast – Pretoria
Bulls:
The Bulls have worked their way into the top 4 and come into the final round of the regular season with a record of 11 wins and 6 defeats. With 54 log points they are still in range of teams below them in the play off places and victory here will secure a home quarter final.
In Round 17 the Bulls put Zebre Parma away 54-19, picking up a bonus point to leap from seventh to fourth on the log. That was their fifth straight win since a home defeat in a derby with the Stormers.
In the outright betting to win the URC title the Bulls are now 6/1 with Sportingbet with Leinster topping the boards at even money, Glasgow are 7/2 and the Stormers 9/2.
Benetton:
Benetton are thirteenth on the log with a record of 6 wins, 2 draws and 9 defeats and dropped out of contention for a play off place some time ago. They are 5 points shy of Edinburgh who are 1 place above them and 8 better off than the Scarlets who are 1 place below so it looks likely they have already found their finishing position.
Benetton were in Durban last week for a clash with the Sharks and they finished well beaten, 46-7. Prior to that they suffered a 45-15 home defeat to Munster in Round 15 before they turned Leinster over 29-26 in another home fixture.
In earlier home matches against SA opposition Benetton beat the Lions 41-15 in Round 3 and they lost to the Stormers 31-16 in Round 5.
Line Ups:
Bulls: tbc
Benetton: tbc
The Betting,
Average early show
Bulls -28.5 points at 9/10
Benetton +28.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Bets:
Tips, more news and betting angles for Round 18 of the URC will be available on Brent Graham's betting blog which is available here.
Brent’s plays for Round 14 of Super Rugby will be available here
Finally, all this week's rugby tips from members of the Goodforthegame community can be found on the weekly rugby thread on our brand new discussion forum. If you haven't done so already, register a forum account here.
