The Emirates Lions kick-off their three-match tour against Welsh outfit Dragons in Round 4 of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship on Sunday afternoon (3.30pm kick-off).
Head coach Ivan van Rooyen has made two changes to his match 23 from the team who played against Edinburgh last week which sees Franco Marais start at hooker, while Nico Steyn getting an opportunity at flyhalf - a position he dabbled in during the recent Currie Cup.
Popular tighthead prop Asenathi Ntlabakanye makes his 50th international appearance for the franchise
Speaking ahead of the Round 4 meeting at the Rodney Parade, Emirates Lions assistant coach Barend Pieterse says they are pleased with the momentum the team currently has going into this tour.
“We are really happy with where we are at the moment as a group. It’s always a nice feeling coming on tour with 10 points in the bag. We will however need to maintain that momentum as we really believe we can become a championship team.”
Pieterse further went onto say that picking up points on the road is key towards achieving success towards the end of season.
“This is the tour we believe we can collect our points to make it easier towards the end of the season without relying on other teams to get us into a play-off position,” he concluded.
Emirates Lions starting XV: 15 Quan Horn, 14 Rabz Maxwane, 13 Erich Cronje, 12 Rynhardt Jonker, 11 Edwill van der Merwe; 10 Nico Steyn, 9 Morne van den Berg; 8 Francke Horn (capt), 7 Jarod Cairns, 6 JC Pretorius; 5 Darrien Landsberg, 4 Reinard Nothnagel; 3 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 2 Franco Marais, 1 Juan Schoeman. Replacements: 16 PJ Botha, 17 Heiko Pohlmann, 18 Conraad van Vuuren, 19 Ruben Schoeman, 20 Renzo du Plessis, 21 Sanele Nohamba, 22 Marius Louw, 23 Henco van Wyk.
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