Morne van den Berg makes his return as Ivan van Rooyen tweaks the Lions lineup for their round-of-16 EPCR Challenge Cup clash against Edinburgh in Scotland on Friday night.
The Pride will face Sean Everitt’s men in the European cup knockout tie at the Hive Stadium, with the visitors’ backs to the wall after three successive defeats in the Vodacom URC that includes a 42-0 hammering by Glasgow Warriors last week.
Van den Berg, who last featured for the Lions at the beginning of March, returns after a three-week injury lay-off to replace Nico Steyn in the No 9 jersey.
Steyn is set to make an impact off the bench alongside veteran hooker Jaco Visagie, prop Juan Schoeman, lock Izan Esterhuizen, flanker JC Pretorius and former skipper Marius Louw.
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Franco Marais, SJ Kotze, Jarod Cairns and Rynhardt Jonker are promoted to the starting XV, while PJ Botha drops out of the match-day 23.
The Lions qualified for the first playoff round of the 2024-25 Challenge Cup by finishing fourth in their pool, but will face an uphill battle against Everitt’s charges, who won their last three EPCR matches.
However, the Johannesburg outfit will have the psychological boost, having thumped Edinburgh 55-21 at Ellis Park earlier in the season.
LIONS – 15 Quan Horn, 14 Richard Kriel, 13 Manuel Rass, 12 Rynhardt Jonker, 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Gianni Lombard, 9 Morne van den Berg, 8 Francke Horn (c), 7 Ruan Venter, 6 Jarod Cairns, 5 Darrien Landsberg, 4 Ruben Schoeman, 3 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 2 Franco Marais, 1 SJ Kotze.
Bench: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Juan Schoeman, 18 RF Schoeman, 19 Izan Esterhuizen, 20 Siba Qoma, 21 JC Pretorius, 22 nico Steyn, 23 Marius Louw.
Photo: Chris Fairweather/Gallo Images
