2015 Rugby World Cup – South Africa vs. Wales – Preview & Betting Tips

The following is a preview with betting tips for the 2015 Rugby World Cup quarter-final clash between South Africa and Wales. More details, including team sheets, will be added as they become available.

Note that the majority of this content is sourced from our 2015 Rugby World Cup Form Guides, Previews & Tips page.

South Africa vs. Wales

Stage: Quarter-finals

Twickenham Stadium, London
October 18, 2015
Kick-off at 2:00 AM
Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)

South Africa squad: 1. Tendai Mtawarira, 2. Bismarck du Plessis, 3. Frans Malherbe, 4. Eben Etzebeth, 5. Lood de Jager, 6. Francois Louw, 7. Schalk Burger , 8. Duane Vermeulen, 9. Fourie du Preez (captain), 10. Handré Pollard, 11. Bryan Habana, 12. Damian De Allende, 13. Jesse Kriel, 14. JP Pietersen, 15. Willie le Roux. Replacements: 16. Adriaan Strauss, 17. Trevor Nyakane, 18. Jannie du Plessis, 19. Pieter-Steph du Toit, 20. Willem Alberts, 21. Ruan Pienaar, 22. Pat Lambie, 23. Jan Serfontein

Wales squad: 1. Gethin Jenkins, 2. Scott Baldwin, 3. Samson Lee, 4. Luke Charteris, 5. Alun-Wyn Jones, 6. Dan Lydiate, 7. Sam Warburton (captain), 8. Taulupe Faletau, 9. Gareth Davies, 10. Dan Biggar, 11. George North, 12. Jamie Roberts, 13. Tyler Morgan, 14. Alex Cuthbert, 15. Gareth Anscombe. Replacements: 16. Ken Owens, 17. Paul James, 18. Tom Francis, 19. Bradley Davies, 20. Justin Tipuric, 21. Lloyd Williams, 22. Rhys Priestland, 23. James Hook

Preview: The knockout stage may have only just started, but every Pool fixture has felt like a knockout game for South Africa after they suffered a shock loss to Japan in their opening fixture. With Fourie du Preez pulling the strings at halfback the side has since settled down well, seeing off Samoa 46-6, Scotland 34-16 and the USA 64-0. In the only change to the side that defeated the USA, the Springboks welcome back JP Pietersen to the wing for this clash.

Wales’ World Cup campaign has been ravaged by injuries, with almost one fifth of the original squad now sidelined. Despite this they have managed to escape the Pool of death at England’s expense. They also pushed the in-form Wallabies hard.

Much of this result will come down to the relative performances of the two fly-halves. Handré Pollard has been accurate with his penalty taking while Dan Biggar has scored almost half of Wales’ points this tournament. Discipline and accurate penalty taking could prove the difference between the two sides.

Wales defeated South Africa the last time the two met, but in recent years this fixture has been dominated by the Springboks, who won six straight meetings before that. Wales will be grimacing at the scheduling, which sees them play this fixture at Twickenham rather than the Millennium Stadium, where two of the other quarter-finals are being played.

Betting: Wales have performed amicably this world cup given their injury toll, but I expect it will all catch up with them against the physical Springboks, who will still be playing with a chip on their shoulder after slipping up against Japan.

Betting tip: back South Africa 1-12 in the Winning Margin market at 2.69 (Pinnacle Sports)

Selection
South Africa Wales	1.30 3.94	1.33 3.75	1.27 3.85	1.29 3.58
South Africa Wales	(-9.0)  1.99 (+9.0)  1.92	(-9.0)  2.00 (+9.0)  2.00	(-9.0)  1.91 (+9.0)  1.91	(-9.5)  1.90 (+9.5)  1.90