Lions head coach Johan Ackermann has named his 23-man team to take on the Crusaders at Ellis Park on Saturday evening.
Ackermann has made just one forced change in the forwards and two changes in the backline for the encounter.
Lions Media Release
In the forwards, Martin Muller comes in at lock for the injured Franco van der Merwe.
Meanwhile, in the backline, Andries Coetzee will start at fullback with Lionel Mapoe coming into the starting 15 at outside centre. As a result, Deon van Rensburg shifts to wing.
On the wood, Malcolm Marx is primed to make his Vodacom Super Rugby debut while Warwick Tecklenburg and Elton Jantjies are also two new inclusions for Saturday’s clash.
The match will kick off at 17:05 and will be preceded by a club curtain-raiser between Raiders and Pirates.
Lions: 15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Deon van Rensburg, 13 Lionel Mapoe, 12 Stefan Watermeyer, 11 Courtnall Skosan, 10 Marnitz Boshoff, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Warren Whiteley (Captain), 7 Willie Britz, 6 Jaco Kriel, 5 Martin Muller, 4 Franco Mostert, 3 Julian Redelinghuys, 2 Willie Wepener, 1 Schalk van der Merwe
Replacements: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Corne Fourie, 18 Ruan Dreyer, 19 MB Lusaseni, 20 Warwick Tecklenburg, 21 Ross Cronje, 22 Elton Jantjies, 23 JW Jonker.
Who is that Cheetah imposter?
1 @ Lion4ever:
Is it better now, with the same man donning a red jersey?
I’ve really liked what I’ve seen from Malcolm Marx in the VC games.
Some good looking youngsters coming through at the Lions, BUT, I fear that if a decent, long term sponsor isn’t secured SOON, it may prove a bridge too far for the Lions to hang on to them.
Very worrying indeed.
This is a game the Lions can take.
Play at full pace and get an early lead then keep them back & let them take the risks.
pounce on their mistakes.
GO LIONS!
@ Scrumdown:
If Ellis Park will see 15,000 to 20,000 crowd then a sponsor will show up
Won’t happened if the attendance remains low, security outside the gates remains a concern but the cash strapped Lions Union may have no means to improve it unfortunately.
Hondo wrote:
Last game had almost 14000. How many were at Loftus last week? Didn’t seem to be a decent crowd either.
Problem with TV pictures at Ellis Park is that the majority of the people sit on the main grandstand on the same side as the cameras.
IF the Lions can keep on winning, the crowds will start coming back.
Friday night games are inherently a problem at just about all SA games.
As for the perceived “security problem” that is only perceived in the minds of people that haven’t been to Ellis Park since the upgrades.
Ellis park has more reserved parking and open areas than both Loftus, Kings Park, Newlands and Bloemfontein. There were massive changes for the FIFA World Cup.
@ Scrumdown:
I have to agree. For me the one thing that Lions management has to get right is the online ticketing system. Other than that, the parking at Joburg stadium is great. I am not sure if the college is still available for parking, but it was also a nice place to park. The parkade if you can get in is fabulous.
The biggest problem with the stadium is its size. In a 65k seater, 15k spectators will look lost. But in a 50k seater, that same number of spectators will look a lot better. So Kings Park, Bloem, Loftus and Newlands all will look bigger than Ellis Park even though there are similar amounts of spectators. I will expect the number of spectators will double for next week’s match against the Sharks.
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