Stormers vs. Zebre, United Rugby Championship, Saturday 27 November 15:00
Stormers vs. Zebre, United Rugby Championship, Saturday 27 November 15:00

The United Rugby Championship is back after more than a one month absence! And more importantly, the South African teams have the privilege of hosting foreign clubs for the first time in over a year and playing on home soil for the first time in this year’s competition. The Stormers are the first South African team in action this weekend and will take on Italian side Zebre at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Stormers

The Stormers haven’t had a great start to the competition, but have still managed to do the best of all the South African teams. They have a record of one win, one draw and two losses and currently sit in 12th place on the table with seven points. 

The Stormers were last in action in October in Newport, Wales where they managed to get their first win of the competition after defeating the Dragons 24-10. They went into the match with a 4.5 point headstart on the handicap and despite trailing at half-time they managed to pull off a 24-10 win thanks to a dominating second half performance that featured two tries from Leolin Zas.

In Round 3 the Stormers were in Edinburgh where they managed to force a 20-20 draw after going down 14-0 after just seven minutes. Despite missing out on the win it was still a positive result for the men from Cape Town after they went into the match as 11.5 point underdogs. Warrick Gelant and Paul de Wet were the tryscorers for the Stormers on the day.

In Round 2 of the competition the Stormers took on Munster where they were given a massive headstart of 24.5 points by the bookies. Things looked good for the visitors after early tries from Warrick Gelant and Leolin Zas and they went into the break with a 15-7 lead. However, things came apart in the second half and they let in four tries which saw them losing the match 34-18.

In their opening encounter of the United Rugby Championship the Stormers were in Italy to take on Benetton where they managed to pick up a losing bonus point after losing the match 22-18. Rikus Pretorius and Ruhan Nel were the tryscorers for the visitors and they managed to just sneak past the pre-match which was around the 5.5 point mark.

Zebre

It hasn’t been a good tournament for Italian side Zebre so far and after five rounds of rugby they are still without a win. What’s even more troubling for the team is that four of those defeats were on home soil and it’s unlikely that things will get any easier from here on.

The best Zebre have managed so far was a bonus point in their opening clash of the United Rugby Championship where they faced the Lions. The home team were able to run in four tries but still went on to lose the match 38-26.

The four clashes that followed were quite the opposite story and after scoring four tries in Round 1 they only managed to score two tries in their other four fixtures. Some of their other results include a 36-3 loss to Ulster, a 43-7 loss away to Leinster, a 17-6 loss to the Warriors and a 27-10 loss to Edinburgh.

Prediction

For the first time this tournament the Stormers go into a match as favourites and after Zebre’s horrible performance in the first five rounds of the competition I can’t say I am really surprised. However, I still feel that it’s no guarantee that the hosts are going to run away with this clash and for me the pre-match handicap of -23.5 points is quite a big one. The Stormers have been out of action for over a month and they could just be a little bit rusty out the blocks and slow to get points on the scoreboard. As it stands the hosts are averaging around 20-25 points a game and this does not make me overly confident that they can cover this handicap.

BetOlimp Best Bet

Zebre +23.5 points – 1.81

 
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