Cape Town – The Lions will be hoping that the couple of changes and positional switches they’ve made will reignite their United Rugby Championship campaign against the Glasgow Warriors on Saturday (4.15pm kickoff).
It has been a tough few months for the Johannesburg side, who have been battling on and off the field and are currently in 14th position on the log.
There have been reports of poor management on their overseas tours, which led to the players having to do their own laundry, eating hotdogs and facing Stade Francais in Paris with their training jerseys.
But now they will be banking on their home-ground advantage at Ellis Park to turn things around against the Scottish outfit.
Head coach Ivan van Rooyen has made a big move by recalling Sanele Nohamba at scrumhalf in place of Morné van den Berg, and the former Sharks No 9’s pace across the ground can be a real factor in testing the defence.
Nohamba also has a good general kicking game, and has the ability to take over the goal-kicking as well from flyhalf Gianni Lombard, who missed several shots at the posts in last weekend’s 29-7 loss to the Sharks.
The loose trio has also been mixed up a bit for Saturday’s game, with Francke Horn returning at No 8, which sees the in-form Emmanuel Tshituka shifting to blindside flank.
Ruan Venter will now move to No 4 lock, with veteran Willem Alberts taking a breather after putting in some big performances in recent matches.
There are also a couple of fresh faces on the bench from the replacements that featured in the Sharks game, with a new loosehead prop in Rhynardt Rijnsburger, hooker Morné Brandon and a former Springbok in fullback Andries Coetzee.
Lions team: 15 Quan Horn 14 Rabz Maxwane 13 Manuel Rass 12 Marius Louw (captain) 11 Edwill van der Merwe 10 Gianni Lombard 9 Sanele Nohamba 8 Francke Horn 7 Emmanuel Tshituka 6 Jaco Kriel 5 Ruben Schoeman 4 Ruan Venter 3 Asenathi Ntlabakanye 2 PJ Botha 1 JP Smith.
Replacements: 16 Morné Brandon 17 Rhynardt Rijnsburger 18 Ruan Dreyer 19 Ruan Delport 20 Ruhan Straeuli 21 Morné van den Berg 22 Rynhardt Jonker 23 Andries Coetzee.
IOL Sport