The Lions have deployed the new-look halfback pairing of Sanele Nohamba and Gianni Lombard for the Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash with Ospreys on Saturday night.

The match in Swansea marks the first of three on the Lions’ tour of the UK, which includes matches against Cardiff and Edinburgh.

A strong bench consisting of powerhouse forward Ruan Venter and halfbacks Morne van den Berg and Jordan Hendrikse will be tasked with bringing energy in the second half.  

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Earlier this week, forwards coach Albert van den Berg explained how the Lions have made minor adjustments.

“We will have to improve on our individual mistakes ahead of Saturday and avoid conceding soft penalties because we know that a team like Ospreys will capitalise on our errors,” he said.

“A big emphasis has been geared towards improving on a few technical aspects, especially in our lineout and scrums and to ensure everyone understands and executes their roles accurately,” concluded the former Springbok lineout jumper.

Kick-off is at 8:30pm (SA time) on Saturday.

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

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Photo: Twitter/@LionsRugbyCo