Lions excited to test depth against Perpignan … and face former mate Orie

The Lions are excited about the prospect of taking on Perpignan in the first round of the Challenge Cup in France this Sunday and going up against former team-mate Marvin Orie, who now dons the colours of the French club.

World Cup winner Orie spent five years at the Lions between 2017 and 2021 before moving onto the Stormers.

Though the 30-year-old lock forward, who was part of the Springboks’ World Cup-winning squad just a few weeks ago, is unlikely to have played against many of the young Lions players picked to go to France for the one-off match, forwards coach Julian Redelinghuys knows Orie well and is expecting him to get Perpignan fired up for the match.

“As a former Lions player who’ll know us well, I’m sure he’ll be selected,” said Redelinghuys, who’s in charge of the Lions scrum.

“That said, I’m not too sure who they’ll pick for the match because, like us, they’re also involved in more than one competition. But, I know the French teams pride themselves on the set-piece and they usually pick their best and strongest teams for home games.

“Having watched them lately, they like heavy packs so it’s going to be a good test for us, but we’re confident in the squad we’ve picked. The guys train together all the time and they push each other so there’s strong competition in our squad and we’re excited to see how they go this weekend.”

Travel demands

The Lions have opted to leave the majority of their first-choice players at home to prepare for next Saturday’s Challenge Cup match against the Newcastle Falcons and pick a number of fringe players for the clash with Perpignan. The side will be captained by hooker Jaco Visagie.

“This is still new for us … playing a competition within a competition (Challenge Cup during the United Rugby Championship),” said Redelinghuys.

“Last year was a good experience, but it’s still new … and we enjoy it. It’s not like Super Rugby. Here, you’ve got four pool games and then it’s quarter-finals.

Redelinghuys explained why the Lions have decided to pick a completely different team to the one that played in the URC last weekend and will likely feature against Newcastle at home next Saturday.

“We travel to France on Wednesday night, arrive late Thursday, take a bus trip to Perpignan, play Sunday and fly out Monday, arrive home Tuesday. Then we play again on Saturday … you simply have to manage the demands.

“It helps to build squad depth, and there’s an opportunity to reward all the players with game time, but it is interesting. We take it on the chin … and key thing is to recover properly.”

Besides the key first-choice players staying behind in Joburg, coaches Barend Pieterse and Ricardo Loubscher are also staying home to prepare the team for next week’s match. Redelinghuys, head coach Ivan van Rooyen and defence coach Jaque Fourie will travel with the team to France.