It’s up to the Emirates Lions players to show they aren’t just fodder for the bigger teams in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship.
That was the word from Lions prop Ruan Dreyer after a tough week at the team’s Johannesburg base, ahead of their clash with Glasgow Warriors on Saturday.
The Lions named a strong side, one that sees a return to the team for Francke Horn from injury and a start for Sanele Nohamba, while Ruan Venter moves across to play lock.
The Lions players had a meeting on Thursday to discuss the off-field issues, and Dreyer made it abundantly clear that their performance is in their own hands.
“We had a meeting yesterday and we said we will make it about the players. Each and every one of us knows that our future is in our own hands,” Dreyer said.
“We said that as players, at the end of the day it is up to us, we can’t worry or complain about anything if we don’t bring the results. All that other stuff there are channels to sort those things out, what we need to do is to do our fighting on the field.
“The first 40 minutes last week showed the amount of opportunities we can create and the guys are playing for each other. There are small margins right now, but we want to bring everything together and keep on striving for that 80 minute performance.”
With the Lions struggling to get past their own internal issues, so much that their team announcement was postponed by 24 hours, Dreyer believes the team have “nothing left to lose”.
“It is something we as players decided, we have nothing else to lose. We have to take the external stuff out of our hands and the only thing we can do is play for each other. At the end fo the day if we don’t stick together we are going to struggle in the future.”
Venter’s move to lock opens up the spot for Horne in the loose trio, with Willem Alberts moving out of the starting line-up. Nohamba’s elevation to the starting line-up is the only change in the backline.
On the bench Morne Brandon and Rhynhardt Rijnsburger come into the reserves as the Lions revert to a five-three bench. Morne van den Berg moves down from last weekend’s starting line-up while Andries Coetzee provides experience from the bench.
Emirates Lions: Quan Horn; Rabz Maxwane, Mannie Rass, Marius Louw (captain), Edwill van der Merwe; Gianni Lombard, Sanele Nohamba; Francke Horn, Emmanuel Tshituka, Jaco Kriel, Ruben Schoeman, Ruan Venter, Asenathi Ntlabakanye, PJ Botha, JP Smith.
Replacements: Morne Brandon, Rhynhardt Rijnsburger, Ruan Dreyer, Ruan Delport, Ruhan Straeuli, Morne van den Berg, Rynhardt Jonker, Andries Coetzee.