Lions set to storm into weekend clash with last week's non-starters

When the Lions meet the Stormers at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on Saturday, they will field the same starting XV that was supposed to do duty against the Glasgow Warriors last weekend. However, a notable absentee will be Sti Sithole.

The loose head prop has been withdrawn from the United Rugby Championship (URC) clash because of the concussion he suffered in training earlier this week.

His place goes to Morgan Naude, but it is hard to replace a player of Sithole's experience. He earned his 50th cap against Ulster earlier this month.

The Lions will be desperate to unleash much pent-up energy against the defending champions, who won the corresponding fixture last season. The Lions are looking for their first home win of this campaign, having gone down to the Bulls and Ulster at Ellis Park.

They were denied the opportunity to register their maiden home win last week when their game against Glasgow Warriors was postponed because of a severe gastroenteritis outbreak in the visiting team.

The effort they put into training last week did not meet reward, but they have the opportunity to let it all out against the Stormers.

“The frustrating part is we had a great week and we wanted to bounce back after the Ulster result, but you can only control what you can control,” said scrum coach Julian Redelinghuys.

“We are still waiting to hear what is going to happen with that,” he said about the postponed game.

There was much speculation earlier in the week about the number of high-profile players the Stormers will be able to assemble for Saturday's clash. The Springbok squad's departure for Dublin that evening means they will be without heavy-hitters Frans Malherbe, Steven Kitshoff, Damian Willemse, Joseph Dweba, Salmaan Moerat, Deon Fourie and Herschel Jantjies.

“We don't know who will be playing for them. We can't focus on which players we'll come up against,” Redelinghuys said sagely.

Apart from their opening round defeat against the Bulls, the Lions have been competitive in all their matches and there is growing belief in the team.

No 8 Francke Horn believes burgeoning faith in what they do started on tour when they won three matches in a row.

“It started with the Ospreys game. Beating them by one point got the belief going in the team and that was carried forward [to] Edinburgh. That's why we were so disappointed in the Ulster game. There was also a lot of character and fightback. There is big belief in the team.”

Chalking up a win over the defending champions will give the Lions cause to push their collective chest out a little further.

Lions team to play the Stormers: Andries Coetzee; Edwill van der Merwe; Henco van Wyk; Marius Louw; Quan Horn; Jordan Hendrikse; Sanele Nohamba; Francke Horn; Ruan Venter; Emmanuel Tshituka; Reinhard Nothnagel (captain); Willem Alberts; Ruan Dreyer; PJ Botha; JP Smith. Substitutes: Jaco Visagie; Morgan Naude; Ruan Smith; Pieter Jansen van Vuren; Sibusiso Sangweni; Morne van den Berg; Gianni Lombard; Zander du Plessis.