Louw racks up 50 for Lions

Emirates Lions captain Marius Louw will run out for his 50th cap for the Emirates Lions when they take on the DHL Stormers in their Vodacom United Rugby Championship derby in Cape Town on Saturday.

Louw will join Stormers captain Salmaan Moerat in celebrating his half century as he takes the team into battle in a crucial derby match that serves as the Joburg side’s last game of the year.

Interestingly, after defence coach Jaque Fourie told journalists this week that two of the stalwarts of the team - Springbok Quan Horn and midfielder Henco van Wyk - were fit and ready to go, the Lions have decided not to choose them and have them under a list of players “not considered due to injury”.

Whether this was mind games or not is unsure, but the Lions certainly could have used the two players this week in their match against the Cape Town side, who themselves need the points from the match to keep themselves in the URC race.

Erich Cronje stays at 13 and Tapiwa Mafura at 15 for the game as they were against Pau in the EPCR Challenge Cup. 

Sam Francis has won the selection race for flyhalf, beating out Kade Wolhuter for the spot, while Sanele Nohamba, who has been struggling for form since the death of his father, is on the bench covering 9 and 10. 

Morne van den Berg starts at 9 with other changes coming at lock where Ruan Delport comes in for the injured Reinhard Northnagel.

Morgan Naude makes a return off the bench after recovering from an arm niggle suffered against Ospreys in the Challenge Cup.

Players not considered due to injury - other than Horn and Van Wyk - include Nothnagel, Ruan Venter and Siba Qoma.

TEAM: Tapiwa Mafura; Rabz Maxwane, Erich Cronje, Marius Louw (captain), Edwill van der Merwe; Sam Francis, Morne van den Berg; Francke Horn, WJ Steenkamp, Jarod Cairns, Ruan Delport, Ruben Schoeman, Asenathi Ntlabakanye, PJ Botha, Juan Schoeman.

Replacements: Franco Marais, Morgan Naude, Conraad van Vuuren, Darrien Landsberg, Izan Esterhuizen, JC Pretorius, Sanele Nohamba, Manny Rass.