Bulls target points, Lions up against a wall in URC clashes

The Bulls and Lions are primed and prepped for their United Rugby Championship clashes against Zebre and Leinster respectively on Friday night.

The Bulls are in Italy for their encounter with Zebre at the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi (kickoff 7.30pm) and are targeting nothing short of a bonus-point win to take away from the match.

A powerful Bulls team was named on Thursday for the game, with just three changes made to their side from their previous match against the Sharks, the biggest one being Chris Smith stepping in at flyhalf for the suspended Morne Steyn.

The team should have more than enough firepower to dispatch a slightly weakened Zebre, who miss a few players on Six Nations duty, but even with a full-strength team Zebre might be unable to stand up to the Bulls.

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Zebre are rock bottom of the URC table, having lost all seven of their games so far while picking up just one point, and are seen as an easy match for teams to pick up a full house of points.

The Bulls have also steadily improved since their poor start to the season and they can use the Zebre match to make a big statement and build some good momentum heading into a nice run of home fixtures against overseas opposition.

Conversely, the Lions are in Ireland as they face the unenviable task of trying to front up against top-of-the-table Leinster at the RDS Arena in Dublin (kickoff 9.35pm).

Leinster will be missing a slew of Irish internationals for the match, but with the impressive depth of their squad and playing against a misfiring Lions outfit, they will fancy their chances of picking up a bonus-point victory on their home turf.

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The Lions head into the massive game in dreadful form, having been comfortably beaten in all of their recent local derbies, of which three of them were at home, and they face a mountain of a task to somehow overturn that form against the competition’s best team.

It will undoubtedly be a baptism of fire for many of the Lions youngsters who have yet to face opposition as accomplished as Leinster, though the tourists will point to a spirited showing against a strong Ulster team earlier in the season.

However, the chances of the Lions walking away from the match with a win are pretty slim and they will do well just to put in a positive showing and make Leinster work for the result while trying to deny them a full house of points.

If the Lions can improve and make a game of it, they can return to SA with their heads held high and prepare for a favourable run of games at home over the coming months.