The Sharks have named their team to face the Lions at Coca Cola Park in Johannesburg on Saturday with John Smit being named at hooker.
Smit started last week’s match against the Cheetahs at loosehead prop but Beast Mtawarira gets a start at loosehead this week and Bismarck du Plessis on the bench.
Willem Alberts drops out of the side with a shoulder complaint so there is a re-arranged loose-forward trio of Jacques Botes, Keegan Daniel and Ryan Kankowski.
Twenty-year-old Marcell Coetzee returns to the side and will play off the bench.
The backline remains unchanged with Frederic Michalak, Jacques-Louis Potgieter and Adrian Jacobs providing cover off the bench
Sharks
1. Beast Mtawarira , 2. John Smit (Captain) , 3. Eugene van Staden , 4. Steven Sykes , 5. Gerhard Mostert , 6. Jacques Botes , 7. Keegan Daniel , 8. Ryan Kankowski , 9. Charl McLeod , 10. Patrick Lambie , 11. Lwazi Mvovo , 12. Meyer Bosman , 13. Stefan Terblanche , 14. JP Pietersen , 15. Louis Ludik
Replacements , 16. Bismarck du Plessis , 17. Wiehahn Herbst , 18. Alistair Hargreaves , 19. Marcell Coetzee , 20. Frederic Michalak , 21. Jacques-Louis Potgieter , 22. Adrian Jaco