The Lions' hopes of following their inspirational win over the Sharks with another over the DHL Stormers on Saturday were dealt a blow as they named a side missing Springboks Ruan Venter and Asenathi Ntlabakanye on Friday.
Venter and Ntlabakanye are two of the Lions’ four Springboks in their side and their absence will be felt, even though the Lions have enough depth to replace them.
Venter left the field against the Sharks for an HIA test, which he passed and returned to the field afterwards. The Lions were livid at the time because they felt the tackle that hit him was illegal and should have been harshly dealt with.
But the hard-running flanker had symptoms of concussion after the game and was immediately booked off from training as per the protocols for concussion in rugby.
His place will be taken by another hard-running forward in Batho Hlekani, who was on the bench last weekend and gets the chance to stake a claim for a more permanent place in the starting line-up.
Ntlabakanye was given off this week because of “personal family reasons” and wasn’t at the team’s open training session on Tuesday. His place has been taken by RF Schoeman, who slots in at tighthead and has deputised for Ntlabakanye for most of the season.
Other than that, the Lions have kept the same starting line-up that comprehensively beat the Sharks last weekend and will be hoping that a win over the Stormers will not only give them a chance to win the South African shield but also entrench them further for a run at their first qualification for the playoffs since the Vodacom United Rugby Championship began.
The Lions have never finished in the top eight, but while the Stormers have traditionally dominated the derby games between the two sides, the Lions did win the last encounter at Ellis Park between them.
Team: Quan Horn (Paarl Boys); Kelly Mpeku (KES), Henco van Wyk (Monument), Bronson Mills (KES), Angelo Davids (Stellenberg); Chris Smith (SACS), Morne van den Berg (Linden); Francke Horn (captain, Boishaai), Batho Hlekani (Graeme College), Siba Mahashe (Hudson Park), Darrien Landsberg (Northcliff), Etienne Oosthuizen (Bergsig), RF Schoeman (Frikkie Meyer), PJ Botha (Monument), SJ Kotze (Boishaai).
Replacements: Franco Marais, Eddie Davids, Conraad van Vuuren, Reinhard Nothnagel, Siba Qoma, Renzo du Plessis, Nico Steyn, Erich Cronje.