The final action in Round 2 of the United Rugby Championship comes from Parma on Sunday where Zebre look to build on a promising start against a Lions side who are looking for their first log point.

Zebre v Lions, Sunday 5th October, Parma, KO 16:00 (South African time)

Referee: Craig Evans (Wales)
Assistant referees: Manuel Bottino (Italy), Luca Bisetto (Italy)
TMO: Aled Griffiths (Wales)

Weather Forecast – Parma 

Zebre:

Zebre hosted Edinburgh in Round 1 and they came out on top 31-28. They were given 7.5 points start on the main handicap line and picked up an early red card but still edged a contest of 4 tries a piece with a late penalty. Zerbre were 1 of 8 teams to come away from the first round of matches with the full 5 log points.

At home to South African sides in 2024/25 Zebre lost 36-5 to the Stormers in Round 3 and 10-9 to the Lions in Round 5. In South Africa they were edged out 35-34 by the Sharks in Durban and they went down 63-24 to the Bulls at Loftus.

After this Zebre visit the Ospreys and in Round 4 they will host the Stormers.

In the outright betting to win the URC title Zebre are 1000/1 rank outsiders with Hollywoodbets

Lions:

The Lions were 6.5 point underdogs on the bookmakers main handicap line for their Round 1 visit to Cardiff and they finished beaten, 33-20. The scored 2 tries (Ruan Venter and WJ Steenkamp) whilst Cardiff ran in 5 in the wet conditions to secure a bonus point.

The Lions have won all 4 previous head to heads with Zebre in the URC.

After this the Lions vist Benetton before they return home for a clash with the Scarlets. And in the outright betting to win the URC title the Lions are 125/1 long shots with Hollywoodbets

Team News

Zebre Parma: 15 Giovanni Montemauri, 14 Mirko Belloni, 13 Giulio Bertaccini, 12 Damiano Mazza, 11 Simone Gesi, 10 Giacomo Da Re, 9 Alessandro Fusco, 8 Muhamed Hasa, 7 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo, 6 Ion Neculai, 5 Alessandro Ortombina, 4 Leonard Krumov (c), 3 Samuele Locatelli, 2 Bautista Stavile, 1 Davide Ruggeri
Replacements: Giampietro Ribaldi, Juan Pitinari, Matteo Nocera, Guido Volpi, Giacomo Ferrari, Thomas Dominguez, Marco Zanon, Martin Roger Farias

Lions: 15 Quan Horn, 14 Eduan Keyter, 13 Henco van Wyk, 12 Richard Kriel, 11 Angelo Davids, 10 Chris Smith, 9 Nico Steyn, 8 Francke Horn (captain), 7 Ruan Venter, 6 Renzo du Plessis, 5 Ruan Delport, 4 Etienne Oosthuizen, 3 RF Schoeman, 2 Franco Marais, 1 SJ Kotze
Replacements: 16 Morne Brandon, 17 Heiko Pohlmann, 18 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 19 Darrien Landsberg, 20 WJ Steenkamp, 21 Haashim Pead, 22 Lubabalo Dobela, 23 Rynhardt Jonker

The Betting,

Average early show

Zebre +1.5 points at 9/10

Lions -1.5 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 Week 6 of the Rugby Championship will be posted on this Blog.

Likewise we will use this blog for tips the second round of the URC.

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.

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