Youth vs experience: Lions and Stormers in URC scrum battle

An exciting scrum battle is on the cards this weekend when the Lions take on the Stormers in their United Rugby Championship encounter at Ellis Park.

It is all set to be a war between experience and youth as the tough and grizzled Stormers pack fronts up against the up-and-coming Lions pack in what should be a thrilling contest.

Springbok prop and Stormers captain Steven Kitshoff is the youngest of the team’s front row that started last weekend at 29 years old, with Scarra Ntubeni (30) and stalwart Brok Harris (36) alongside him.

Between them they boast an impressive 285 caps playing for the Stormers, which doesn’t even take into account Harris’ over a hundred caps at the Dragons, or Kitshoff’s Bok appearances and stint in France, while Ntubeni has featured a lot for Western Province as well.

It is a powerful and experienced front three, with all of them having made their professional debuts over a decade ago, and they will be looking to utilise all of that against the Lions on Saturday.

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The Lions front three, on the other hand, sees prop Sti Sithole as the oldest member of the trio at 28 years old while hooker PJ Botha and Carlu Sadie are both 24.

They share 86 Lions URC/Super Rugby caps between them, although Sithole made a few appearances for the Stormers years ago and spent a season with the Southern Kings, while Sadie also has nine caps for the Stormers.

Despite being a relatively young and inexperienced front three, they have enjoyed a strong showing over the past two weekends against the Bulls and they will believe they can more than front up against the Stormers this weekend.

It is all geared up to be an interesting battle and the team that can dominate up front will give their backline the perfect platform to attack from in the match.

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Lions scrum coach Julian Redelinghuys is looking forward to the encounter and believes that a strong scrum battle can only improve SA rugby.

“They are a good pack and had a good battle against the Sharks over the past two weekends,” Redelinghuys said.

“Every South African pack prides themselves on their set piece and they (Stormers) have quality players, so it’s going to be another tough battle up front.

“But that is what we look for, that is what we like, and I live for these tough battles up front where you are tested to the max. So we want tough packs competing against each other because that’s how we get South African rugby stronger.”