Emirates Lions Coach, Johan Ackermann has made wholesale changes to the Lions squad that will meet the Jaguares this Saturday. Ross Cronjé will captain the squad. Many of the players are Currie Cup or fringe Super Rugby players.

While one can understand the need to rest some of his players, one can only hope that this huge rotation will not cost the Lions a potential home final. The last Round permutations are very interesting. The result in the Highlanders-Chiefs clash is far from clear cut. The Highlanders will be very difficult to beat at home, and the likelihood of the Chiefs winning with a bonus point and winning by a margin of more than 39 is very unlikely. The other New Zealand fixture that could also impact the Lions is the one between the Crusaders and the Hurricanes. Again, a betting man would not bet on either team coming away with a bonus point win, with a Crusaders victory the most likely outcome.

The Lions team will know what they have to do by the time they run out onto the field on Saturday night.

The Emirates Lions touring squad is:

Team: 15 Sylvian Mahuza, 14 Koch Marx, 13 Stokkies Hanekom, 12 Howard Mnisi, 11 Anthony Volmink, 10 Jaco van der Walt, 9 Ross Cronjé (Captain), 8 Cyle Brink, 7 Robert Kruger, 6 Stef de Witt, 5 Lourens Erasmus, 4 Martin Muller, 3 Jacques van Rooyen, 2 Akker van der Merwe, 1 Corné Fourie
Replacements: 16 Ramone Samuels, 17 Clinton Theron, 18 Pieter Scholtz, 19 Fabian Booysen, 20 Ruaan Lerm, 21 Dillon Smit, 22 Jacques Nel, 23 Shaun Reynolds, 24 Bobby de Wee, 25 Ashlon Davids.