Lions full of ‘confidence’, but ‘fearless’ Stormers ready to rock in Joburg

The Lions and Stormers collide on a special day for a South African legend as Springbok prop Frans Malherbe runs onto the field for his 150^th franchise cap when the sides meet in their United Rugby Championship (URC) derby at Ellis Park on Saturday afternoon (kick-off 2:30pm).

He becomes the second Stormers player to reach the milestone, after veteran Brok Harris, who sits on 164 caps and will be playing off the bench.

The Stormers have made four changes to their side from the one that went down in a one-point thriller against the Bulls over the past weekend, with hooker JJ Kotze and prop Ali Vermaak joining Malherbe in the front row, replacing Joseph Dweba and Sti Sithole.

Backline changes

In the backline Herschel Jantjies has replaced Stefan Ungerer at scrumhalf, while Angelo Davids steps in at left wing for Leolin Zas who has been ruled out through sickness.

The Stormers will be desperate to get back to winning ways, with them currently sitting 10^th on the URC log and on a three-match losing streak in all competitions, two in the URC against Leinster and the Bulls, but despite that pressure assistant coach Dawie Snyman says they won’t be impacted by that.

“The first mistake you can make is try to get to the outcome first. We know what we need to do up there, and we know what they will bring. So we are 90% focused on ourselves and are aware of what they can bring to the game,” explained Snyman in the build-up.

“That’s all we can do. Stay in the moment and take it play by play. The result at the end of the day will be determined by our performance. One thing I can say as the Stormers is we are fearless.

“We won’t be thinking about a result that has an influence on the log. We will attack every game and that’s the way we are going to play.”

Lions changes

The Lions have had a few weeks off since their last game, also a loss against the Bulls, and are also essentially in a must-win position with the 13^th on the URC log, although they have two games in hand on most teams ahead of them.

They have made three changes to that side that went down to their Highveld rivals, lock Darrien Lansberg coming in for Ruan Delport, flyhalf Gianni Lombard for Sam Francis and inside centre Marius Louw returns for Rynhardt Jonker.

After winning their first four URC games, the Lions have since lost their last four, so need to get back to winning ways, and they will also want to atone for their loss against the Stormers in Cape Town in December.

“The last two weeks have been good. Our prep around how we want to play and what is needed has gone well and I think we can go out on Saturday with confidence,” said Lions assistant coach Ricardo Loubscher.

“You always want to have a go, but I think we need to be smart and clever. Have good game management, hang onto the right balls, make sure we play the tactical kicking game.

“Sometimes you can drown yourself by just having a go from anywhere. So the big focus this week is making sure that our game management is on point.”