Following their 17-13 loss against South Africa A, the British and Irish Lions face the Stormers in Cape Town on Saturday.
Well, the Lions got a bit of a wake-up call this past Wednesday as they went down 17-13 to an SA A side – if you can call it that – down in Cape Town.
The men from the Isles now turn their attention to Cape Town’s finest with the Stormers set to give the tourists a real run just a week prior to the first Test.
Stormers v British and Irish Lions
Saturday 17 July
Cape Town Stadium
18:00
To Win (80 Mins)
Stormers 14/1
Draw 40/1
Lions 1/100
Handicap
Stormers (+37.5) 9/10
Lions (-37.5) 9/10
The Stormers are the next South African franchise off the rank to try and stop a Lions team who brushed aside the Sigma Lions and the Cell C Sharks.
As mentioned in the introduction, the Lions suffered their first defeat on tour this past Wednesday as they were beaten 13-17 by a very strong SA A side that bore great resemblance to the Springbok Test team.
Having suffered a defeat and with the fixtures piling up, the Lions are likely to make a good few changes here and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Marcus Smith come into the equation with the Harlequins ten having touched down in South Africa a couple of days ago.
The Lions need cover at ten and there’s no sense risking Farell who is the default option at this point with Dan Biggar nursing a knee injury and having picked up a slight ankle strain, while Finn Russel is touch and go for the Tests having done his Achilles.
We could also see Robbie Henshaw get his first start in South Africa with the centre having overcome a hamstring strain.
Verdict: Lions (-37.5) 9/10
The tourists will be looking to bounce back in style and I reckon they’ll do just that with the hosts missing a number of their big-name players to ‘Bok duty.
