Lions keep faith, make limited changes ahead of Stormers clash

The Lions have made one forced change to their side that was set to play Glasgow Warriors last weekend ahead of their local United Rugby Championship (URC) derby against the Stormers at Ellis Park on Saturday.

Loosehead prop Morgan Naude replaces Sti Sithole on the bench after Sithole suffered a concussion during training earlier this week.

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Other changes that were made ahead of the Glasgow game, which was then postponed due to a stomach virus in their camp, remain in place with flyhalf Jordan Hendrikse getting a run as Gianni Lombard drops to the bench.

PJ Botha also returns to the starting team in a rotational switch with Jaco Visagie, from the team that turned out against Ulster two weeks ago.

Earlier this week Lions scrum coach Julian Redelinghuys acknowledged the quality of the reigning champions but preferred to focus on his side’s preparations ahead of Saturday’s encounter.

“There’s no doubt that the Stormers are a quality side, but in saying that our focus this week has been on our plans and how we want to execute on Saturday. We control what we can, with a sharp focus on our processes in the build-up,” said Redelinghuys.

On the Lions’ performances against local opposition, the former Bok prop believes his side has the ability to turn results around in this campaign.

“We certainly want to improve our performances against local opposition. We believe if we can better our performances in local URC derbies, the results will take care of themselves. There’s no better opportunity than this Saturday at home in front of our home fans,” he concluded.

Kick-off on Saturday is at 4pm.

Lions: Andries Coetzee, Edwill van der Marwe, Henco van Wyk, Marius Louw, Quan Horn, Jordan Hendrikse, Sanele Nohamba, Francke Horn, Ruan Venter, Emmanuel Tshituka, Reinhard Nothnagel (c), Willem Alberts, Ruan Dreyer, PJ Botha, JP Smith

Bench: Jaco Visagie, Morgan Naude, Ruan Smith, Pieter Jansen van Vuren, Sibusiso Sangweni, Morne van den Berg, Gianni Lombard, Zander du Plessis