Lions back hooker depth ahead of Jukskei Derby and gruelling URC-EPCR run

The Lions remain confident in their hooker stocks, despite the recent injury-enforced retirement of Jaco Visagie, as they gear up for a challenging run of fixtures, starting with Saturday’s United Rugby Championship Jukskei derby against the Bulls at Loftus.

Stalwart forward Visagie, 33, called time on his career earlier this month, after failing to recover from a long-term neck injury. 

But with first-choice hooker PJ Botha on the mend, and Franco Marais, Morne Brandon and Griquas loanee Janco Uys among their options, Lions assistant coach Barend Pieterse is confident the Joburg side has enough cover in the position to avigate a packed upcoming schedule that includes crunch URC and EPCR Challenge Cup encounters.

“I think a few weeks back, it would have been a different discussion, but PJ is coming back from injury. He started training and he’ll hopefully be back in the next week or two.

"Janco is giving us good cover there as well,” Pieterse told a Lions online media briefing on Tuesday afternoon, alongside skipper Francke Horn.

“We’ve still got Marno Grobbelaar at the bottom as well, as a youngster coming through, so there’s enough depth at the moment. It’s not a position where we feel we don’t have enough.” 

The Lions are set for a busy programme after the international break, starting with Saturday’s clash in Pretoria. Moreover, they will face their northern neighbours this weekend without prop Springboks Asenathi Ntlabakanye and scrumhalf Morne van den Berg, who have remained with the men's senior national team for their clash against Wales in Cardiff, also on Saturday.

After this weekend's match, the Lions face back-to-back Challenge Cup fixtures against Benetton at home and Newcastle away, before welcoming the Stormers to Ellis Park and travelling to the Shark Tank in Durban for URC fixtures as, they round out the year.   

The first match of the new year is another URC derby against the Sharks at home, followed by two Challenge Cup matches. 

Pieterse feels they are well-prepared to fight on two fronts, praising the conditioning staff for keeping the players sharp during the November break.  

“I think going into the EPCR we’ve already had the discussion. We would be silly just to pick one team the whole time going through the season. There is going to be opportunities for players to maybe start against Benetton and Newcastle and then hopefully have some more fresh legs for the Stormers game,” he said. 

“But there are a lot of teams that are juggling that and I think we didn’t do too bad in the past two years, juggling between the two competitions – just to give guys who haven’t played the chance. There will definitely be a chance for guys in the deeper squad for game time in the EPCR.”

The Lions will be looking to build on back-to-back URC wins against Scarlets and Ulster when they travel to face a Bulls team keen to bounce back from a 21-12 loss away to the Glasgow Warriors. Kick-off in the Round 6 tie at Loftus is at 2pm on Saturday.