Lions trust winning combos for Stormers duel

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Coach Ivan van Rooyen has taken an ‘if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it’ approach by naming an unchanged starting XV for the Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash between the Emirates Lions and DHL Stormers on Saturday.

The Lions have only made one forced change ahead of the local URC derby at Ellis Park, with loosehead prop Morgan Naude coming in for Sti Sithole (concussion) on the bench.

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Meanwhile, Lions No 8 Francke Horn emphasised the need for his team to start well in order to gain momentum early in the match, therefore creating a solid platform to work from.

“It is a crucial time just after kick-off and just after half time. I think most games are won at the start and just after half time. We’ll have a hard look at it and we know how to fix that,” he said.

“We were a little tired against Ulster but that is no excuse for not playing good rugby. We don’t know what the Stormers will bring.

“We will be as good as we can be in the first half then take it from there. We know we have the fitness and structure to take us to 80 minutes. For us, a big focus is to start well and not play catch up again like we did against Ulster.”

ALSO: By the numbers: Lions vs Stormers

Lions – 15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Edwill van der Merwe, 13 Henco van Wyk, 12 Marius Louw, 11 Quan Horn, 10 Jordan Hendrikse, 9 Sanele Nohamba, 8 Francke Horn, 7 Ruan Venter, 6 Emmanuel Tshituka, 5 Reinhard Nothnagel (c), 4 Willem Alberts, 3 Ruan Dreyer, 2 PJ Botha, 1 JP Smith.
Subs: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Morgan Naude, 18 Ruan Smith, 19 Pieter Jansen van Vuren, 20 Sibusiso Sangweni, 21 Morne van den Berg, 22 Gianni Lombard, 23 Zander du Plessis.

Photo: Matteo Ciambelli/INPHO/Shutterstock

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Devin Hermanus