Ivan van Rooyen’s charges are back at Ellis Park this Saturday for Round 4 of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship where they will lock on horns with the Scarlets from Wales this Saturday. Returning from a challenging three-week tour where they faced Cardiff Rugby, Zebre and Benetton, the men from Johannesburg are backing themselves to register their first win of the season against the side from Llanelli.

Lions assistant coach Ricardo Loubscher was upbeat this week praising the energy of the squad despite the challenging tour.

“The energy within the camp is good,” he commented. We can’t wait for Saturday, it’s great to be back home.”

Loubscher gave insight this week on the team’s approach and how preparations have gone ahead of Scarlet’s visit to Ellis Park.

“We know that it’s going to be a tough challenge on the weekend. Scarlets present a different approach defensively, so from an attack point of view we need to be ready for that, he cautioned.”

“Our training this week was focused mainly on simulating the pressure we can expect from the opposition in terms of defense and attack pictures, in order for the players get a feel of what it will be like come Saturday, he concluded.”

In team news, Nico Steyn starts at halfback in place of Springbok Morne van den Berg who came off early in the first half against Benetton last week with a hamstring strain. Lock Darrien Landsberg fills the number five jumper in place of Ruan Delport, with Reinhard Nothnagel returning from injury on the bench as lock cover. Winger Eduan Keyter also makes a return after missing out last weekend.

Layton Horn provides halfback cover with Kelly Mpeku also included in the match 23.

Kick-off at Ellis Park is at 13:45 (SA time)

Lions 23 vs Scarlets

1.           SJ Kotze

2.           Franco Marais

3.           Asenathi Ntlabakanye

4.           Etienne Oosthuizen

5.           Darrien Landsberg

6.           JC Pretorius

7.           Ruan Venter

8.           Francke Horn (c)

9.           Nico Steyn

10.         Chris Smith

11.         Angelo Davids

12.         Richard Kriel

13.         Henco van Wyk

14.         Eduan Keyter

15.         Quan Horn

Replacements

16.         Morne Brandon

17.         RF Schoeman

18.         Conraad van Vuuren

19.         Reinhard Nothnagel

20.         Jarod Cairns

21.         Layton Horn

22.         Lubabalo Dobela

23.         Kelly Mpeku