Coach explains why the Lions axed captain Odendaal for Wales tour

The Lions are firmly looking to the future in the United Rugby Championship (URC) as they named a touring squad without captain Burger Odendaal for their match against the Dragons in Wales on Saturday.

Odendaal has been the team’s captain and one of their most experienced players since arriving from the Bulls in 2020 and has enjoyed a terrific season for the Lions.

But with him having signed for English Premiership side Wasps, the team management decided to give their up and coming centre talents Manny Rass, Matt More and Henco van Wyk a chance to shine in their final URC match of the season.

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“Burger is our captain, he has been unbelievable for us this season. But we are looking forward to the future a little bit with this game being our last URC and away game,” explained Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen on Tuesday.

“I think it’s the perfect situation for our three young centres to give them an opportunity to go and experience an away game in Europe. Unfortunately for Burger I know it’s not ideal.

“But it’s important for the team to experience this. We want to let Noties (Reinhard Nothnagel) lead them in an away game and let the senior players play a vital role this week.

“We are also excited for Manny, Henco and Matt to get this opportunity to express themselves against an international team away from home.”

Key players missing

The Lions are also traveling with a number of key players out due to illness and injury, with prop Carlu Sadie still recovering from Covid, centre Wandisile Simelane out with a serious flu and Emmanuel Tshituka’s ankle keeping him sidelined.

With this their final URC game of the season the Lions will be targeting a win to end off on a high, but they will also be looking to improve on various facets of their play, with them putting a premium focus on defence against the Dragons.

“We want to walk away with a win, like in any game, but we need to keep on developing our systems. The last two games defensively we probably weren’t consistent enough as in previous games, so it’s important for us to sort out our defence, especially at ruck time,” said Van Rooyen.

The Lions are currently in 11^th place on the URC log, which is the highest they can finish this season, but if they were to lose and Connacht a place below them win they would swap places, so that will also be a motivating factor for them to go all out against the 15^th placed Dragons.

For the tour squad click here.