Fidelity ADT Lions forwards guru Wessel Roux believes his team can latch onto a few positives despite going down 28-44 to DHL Western Province last weekend in their Currie Cup opener.

This is ahead of his team’s visit to Mbombela on Friday to take on reigning Currie Cup champions.

Fresh from their convincing victory against the Vodacom Bulls last week Sunday, the Airlink Pumas have set the pace in South Africa’s premier domestic competition.

“It was obviously a tough start to the campaign for us,” reflects Roux.

“We would have liked to have gotten a win, but I thought we played well despite small mistakes at crucial moments which resulted in the opposition scoring points against us.”

“It’s still a long competition but I believe there were quite a number of positives we can take from last week ahead of Friday against the Pumas,” he added.

Commenting on Friday’s Round 2 clash, Roux says there’s not much you can fault the Pumas on when it comes to their style of play and his team would need to match them physically to gain any kind of dominance.

“The Pumas are a very good side with not many weaknesses,” he commented. They come across as a well-balanced, well coached side. They are very physical in all facets of the game coupled by their good scrums, lineout systems and maul attack play,” the former Bok concluded.

Friday’s encounter sees the experienced Andries Coetzee slot into the fullback position alongside speedster Boldwin Hansen and Stean Pienaar at the back.

Lineout jumper Darrien Landsberg returns to Mpumalanga to face his former team with his lock partner Ruben Schoeman, with Jarod Cairns starting at six after an impressive stint off the bench against DHL WP last week.

Kick-off is at 17:00 at Mbombela Stadium.

Fidelity ADT Lions

1. Rhynardt Rijnsburger
2. Jaco Visagie
3. Ruan Smith
4. Ruben Schoeman
5. Darrien-Lane Landsberg
6. Jarod Cairns
7. Ruan Delport
8. Travis Gordon (c)
9. Morne van den Berg
10. Vaughen Isaacs
11. Boldwin Hansen
12. Tyler Bocks
13. Rynhardt Jonker
14. Stean Pienaar
15. Andries Coetzee

Replacements
16. Morne Brandon
17. Sti Sithole
18. Kabous Bezuidenhout
19. Raynard Roets
20. Ruhan Straeuli
21. Sibusiso Sangweni
22. Nico Steyn
23. Tiaan Swanepoel