Damian Willemse and Warrick Gelant will both start for the Stormers in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash against the Lions in Johannesburg on Saturday.

Stormers head coach John Dobson has made three changes to the starting lineup that did duty against the Sharks, all coming in the backline.

Springbok pair Willemse and Gelant will both finally be involved in the same starting lineup. Willemse replaces Dan du Plessis at inside centre, while Gelant retains his place at fullback.

The two other changes are rotational as Paul de Wet gets an opportunity at scrumhalf, with Herschel Jantjies playing off the bench.

Sergeal Petersen starts on the right wing in place of Angelo Davids.

The forward pack that did duty in the 20-10 victory against the Sharks at Cape Town Stadium last week will start again. David Meihuizen is back from Currie Cup duty to add some much-needed depth at lock off the bench.

Dobson said that the changes to the backline should give his team some important impetus towards the end of the game.

“As we have said, we had a plan for Damian in these four games. He started at fullback for the first two and then came on at 12 last week, so now we are ready to start him at 12.

“Dan du Plessis was outstanding last week, but he has started three games in a row and to have him coming off the bench along with the likes of Herschel Jantjies and Angelo Davids will give us huge impact in the second half, which is so crucial up there,” he said.

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Stormers – 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Sergeal Petersen, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Damian Willemse, 11 Seabelo Senatla, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Paul de Wet, 8 Hacjivah Dayimani, 7 Ernst van Rhyn, 6 Deon Fourie, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Adre Smith, 3 Brok Harris, 2 Scarra Ntubeni, 1 Steven Kitshoff (c).
Subs: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Leon Lyons, 18 Sazi Sandi, 19 David Meihuizen, 20 Marcel Theunissen, 21 Herschel Jantjies, 22 Dan du Plessis, 23 Angelo Davids.

Photo: Gerhard Duraan/BackpagePix