Challenge Cup: Lions and Cheetahs name their teams

The Lions and Cheetahs on Friday afternoon named their teams to face Section Paloise (Pau) and Cardiff in their Challenge Cup encounters on Saturday.

It will be their final home match of the year when the Lions entertain Pau at Ellis Park at 5:15pm, while the Cheetahs will be braving the elements at 10pm against Cardiff in Wales.

The Lions went down to Ospreys in Llanelli in their opener, while the Cheetahs drew with Perpignan in Amsterdam, so both sides will be hunting their first wins of the competition.

Lions back to full strength for French challenge

Head coach Ivan van Rooyen’s side will be looking to bounce back against French opponents Pau in round two of the EPCR Challenge Cup.

Back from a challenging away outing against Ospreys last week Sunday, the Johannesburg side are relying on home support in what will be their final home game for 2024.

The Lions mentor has taken a rotational approach by including the bulk of the side who featured against Munster in their United Rugby Championship game in Limerick two weeks ago.

Centre Marius Louw leads from the inside centre position alongside last week’s starter Erich Cronje. Speedster Rabz Maxwane forms a formidable back three with the returning Edwill van der Merwe and last week’s starting fullback Tapiwa Mafura.

Amongst the forwards, WJ Steenkamp retains his spot after an impressive shift against the Ospreys, while Jarod Cairns and Francke Horn complete the back row.

Assistant coach Ricardo Loubscher says a major focus leading up to Saturday was recovery with further emphasis on cohesion and alignment.

“We feel a win is not enough. We need to make sure we put up a good performance against Pau on Saturday,” said the former Springbok fullback.

“A key focus for us this week was on recovery. We had a few guys who flew back to South Africa after the Munster game, so they’ve recovered and trained well this week. Hopefully we can find cohesion and execute the plans we’ve put in place ahead of Saturday.

Lions XV

Tapiwa Mafura, Rabz Maxwane, Erich Cronje, Marius Louw, Edwill van der Merwe, Sam Francis, Morne van den Berg, Francke Horn, WJ Steenkamp, Jarod Cairns, Reinhard Nothnagel, Ruben Schoeman, Asenathi Ntlabakanye, PJ Botha, Juan Schoeman

Bench: Jaco Visagie, SJ Kotze, RF Schoeman, Ruan Delport, JC Pretorius, Nico Steyn, Kade Wolhuter, Manny Rass

Cheetahs back continuity for Cardiff clash

The Cheetahs traveled from Amsterdam to Wales for their second round Challenge Cup match against Cardiff at Arms Park on Saturday night.

The team from the Free State draw against USAP Perpignan on Sunday and would be eager to end their first tour in this season’s competition on a high note.

“We pride ourselves on our forwards pack, coach Sakkie (Izak van der Westhuizen) drives us hard, and the standards are high,” said loose forward Gideon van der Merwe at a press briefing earlier in the week.

“It is good to see that we can dominate up front in Europe. We just need to keep that going and we need to work more on our attacking and defensive side.”

The they have named just two changes to the starting team from the one that faced Perpignan, with Oupa Mohoje coming into the starting line-up, switching places with Friedle Oliver, while Cohen Jasper replaces Prince Nkabinde at left wing.

 Cheetahs XV

 Michael Annies, Munier Hartzenberg, Carel-Jan Coetzee, Ali Mgijima, Cohen Jasper, Ethan Wentzel, Ruben de Haas, Jeandré Rudolph, Oupa Mohoje, Gideon van der Merwe, Victor Sekekete (c), Carl Wegner, Aranos Coetzee, Louis van der Westhuizen, Schalk Ferreira

Bench: Vernon Paulo, Hencus van Wyk, Robert Hunt, Pierre-Raymond Uys, Friedle Olivier, Daniel Maartens, Rewan Kruger, George Lourens