The Lions’ prospects of dousing the Dragons’ fire were boosted with the return from injury of centre Henco van Wyk and flank Ruan Venter, who are both in the starting line-up for Saturday’s crunch EPCR Challenge Cup clash at Ellis Park (5.15pm kick-off).
Morné ‘Krappies’ van den Berg’s return at scrumhalf after being rested for last weekend’s defeat against Montpellier is a further boost for a Lions side that had already welcomed Bok fullback Quan Horn from injury last week.
Van den Berg is expected to breathe life into a backline that often struggled last weekend against the far more experienced French giants.
Wing Kelly Mpeku drops out of the match-day squad altogether, having made his tour debut in France.
Powerful No 8 Francke Horn takes over the captain’s armband from centre Marius Louw, while JC Pretorius gets the nod in the loose trio, having started on the bench in last Saturday’s encounter, with Jarod Cairns providing cover.
Utility back Gianni Lombard also gets a chance from the bench.
The Joburg side lost 28-5 away to pool leaders Montpellier last weekend, their second loss in three pool matches.
Yet, they remain in play-off contention on their return to Ellis Park.
They are hungry to secure the win against a Dragons side smarting from Sunday’s scrappy 24-15 home loss against Pau and their failure to make Saturday’s clash a dead rubber. | Independent Media Sport
Lions Team
15 Quan Horn 14 Tapiwa Mafura 13 Henco van Wyk 12 Rynhardt Jonker 11 Edwill van der Merwe 10 Sam Francis 9 Morné van den Berg 8 Francke Horn (captain) 7 Ruan Venter 6 JC Pretorius 5 Darrien Landsberg 4 Etienne Oosthuizen 3 Asenathi Ntlabakanye 2 PJ Botha 1 Juan Schoeman.
Bench: 16 Jaco Visagie 17 SJ Kotze 18 RF Schoeman 19 Ruan Delport 20 Jarod Cairns 21 Nico Steyn 22 Gianni Lombard 23 Manuel Rass.