The Stormers host Leicester Tigers in their final Champions Cup Pool 3 match in Cape Town on Saturday with the home side looking to seal qualification and a favourable seeding for the knockout rounds.
Stormers v Leicester Tigers, Saturday 17th January, Cape Town, KO 17:15 (South African time)
Referee: Jeremy Rozier (Fra)
Assistant Referees: Pierre Brousset (Fra), Benjamin Hernandez (Fra)
TMO: Denis Grenouillet (Fra)
Weather Forecast – Cape Town
Stormers:
Pool 3 is currently topped by Leinster with 14 points, Harlequins are second with 11 and those 2 sides are already through to the knockout rounds. That leaves 2 more places open and the Stormers are currently third with 9 points and Stade Rochelle are fourth with 6. Leicester Tigers are fifth with 5 points, if they stay there they will contest the Challenge Cup whilst Aviron look set the wooden spoon with no log points and a minus 106 points difference.
Aside from this match the other key fixture in this pool sees Stade Rochelle host Harlequins on Sunday.
The Stormers winning streak in all competitions came to an end last week when they crashed to a 61-10 defeat away to Harlequins. They began their Champions Cup campaign away to Bayonne and they came out on top 26-17. In Round 2 they took on Stade Rochelle in Nelson Mandela Bay and reeled off a 42-21 bonus point victory.
In the URC the Stormers are the only side to boast a 100% record, 8 wins from 8 and they are 2 points clear of Glasgow Warriors at the top of the standings with a game in hand. Over the festive season the Stormers won back to back SA derby matches in Cape Town, against the Lions (34-27) and most recently the Bulls (13-8)
In the outright betting to win the Champions Cup title this season the Stormers are 14/1 shots with Hollywoodbets
Leicester Tigers:
The Tigers first points of the tournament came in Round 3 when they thrashed Aviron 57-14 in Leicester. Prior to that they went down 39-20 away to La Rochelle and 23-15 at home to Leinster.
In the Gallagher Premiership the Tigers are in fifth position with a record of 6 wins and 3 defeats. They are 2 points behind fourth placed Bristol Bears and 7 shy of log leaders Northampton Saints.
In the outright betting to win the Champions Cup title this season the Tigers are 300/1 shots with Hollywoodbets
Team News
Stormers: 15 Wandisile Simelane, 14 Dylan Maart, 13 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 12 Jonathan Roche, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (captain), 9 Stefan Ungerer, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Paul de Villiers, 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 JD Schickerling, 3 Neethling Fouché, 2 André-Hugo Venter, 1 Ntuthuko Mchunu.
Replacements: 16 JJ Kotzé, 17 Vernon Matongo, 18 Zachary Porthen, 19 Connor Evans, 20 Marcel Theunissen, 21 Imad Khan, 22 Luke Burger, 23 JC Mars
Tigers: 15 George Pearson, 14 Gabe Hamer-Webb, 13 Will Wand, 12 Joe Woodward, 11 Ollie Hassell-Collins, 10 Billy Searle, 9 Tom Whiteley, 8 Olly Cracknell (c), 7 Sam Williams, 6 Joaquin Moro, 5 Harry Wells, 4 James Thompson, 3 Will Hurd, 2 Jamie Blamire, 1 Tareq Haffar.
Bench: 16 Finn Theobald-Thomas, 17 Archie van der Flier, 18 Ale Loman, 19 Tom Manz, 20 Emeka Ilione, 21 Ollie Allan, 22 Orlando Bailey, 23 Ryan Crowley
The Betting,
Average early show
Stormers -20.5 points at 9/10
Tigers +20.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
This Weeks Bets
Brent Graham's betting angle and plays for this weeks Champions Cup matches will be posted on this Blog.
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.