The second of Saturday’s United Rugby Championship semi finals comes from the Aviva Stadium, Dublin where the Stormers face a tough task against outright tournament favourites Leinster.
Leinster v Stormers, Saturday 6th June, Dublin, KO 18:30 (South African time)
Referee: tbc
Assistant Referees: tbc
TMO: tbc
Weather Forecast - Dublin
Leinster:
Leinster hosted the Lions at this venue in the quarter finals last week, the Irish side came in for support on the bookmakers main handicap line backed from -12.5 to -16.5 on match day and they obliged for minus backers with a 9 try display in a 59-10 win. That was a bounce back of note as a week earlier Leinster had crashed and burned to 41-19 to Bordeaux in the final of the Champions Cup in Bilbao.
Leinster finished as runners up to Glasgow Warriors at the end of the URC regular season. They won 12 and lost 6 of their matches and were two points shy of the table topping Scots and 3 better off than the third placed Stormers.
Leinster also beat the Lions, 31-7 in Round 17 at the Aviva Stadium. In South Africa at the start of the season they were thumped 35-0 by the Stormers in Cape Town and then lost to the Bulls (39-31) at Loftus. They returned home for a Round 3 home fixture against the Sharks which they won 31-5.
In the outright betting to win the URC title WSB have Leinster topping the boards at 8/10, Glasgow are 24/10, the Bulls are 4.75/1 and the Stormers are 10/1 shots.
Stormers:
The Stormers hosted Cardiff in Cape Town in their quarter final which was also one sided with the cape side running out winners 44-21, easily covering the main handicap line of -14.5 points. The win came at a cost with Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu picking up a nasty looking ankle injury and Seabelo Senatla is out of this clash due to concussion protocols.
At the end of the regular URC season the Stormers came in third with a record of 12 wins, 1 draw and 5 defeats. Their tally of 60 log points was 3 shy of Leinster and 5 adrift of Glasgow Warriors who topped the standings.
After 16 rounds of matches it was the Stormers who were top of the log. Their last two games were overseas and a 38-38 draw with Ulster in Belfast followed by a 22-16 loss to Cardiff in Wales saw the Stormers slip to third and hence they find themselves traveling for this semi final.
Prior to the draw at Uster and the loss at Cardiff the Stormers other tour matches came early in the season where they won at the Scarlets, Zebre, Benetton and Munster.
In each of the last two seasons the Stormers had exited the URC at the quarter final stage at the hands off the Warriors in Glasgow. In 2023 they lost a home final to Munster and in 20233 they won the title, beating the Bulls in the final in Cape Town.
Line Ups:
Leinster: tbc
Stormers: tbc
The Betting,
Average early show
Leinster -12.5 points at 9/10
Stormers +12.5 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 the URC Semi Finals will be posted on Brent Graham's betting blog which is available here.
Brent’s plays for the first round of Super Rugby play offs 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.