Press Release, Team News, United Rugby Championship
30th Nov 2023
Emirates Lions mentor Ivan van Rooyen has named an unchanged match 23 to take on Dragons RFC in Round 7 of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship at Emirates Airlines Park this Saturday.
Emirates Lions mentor Ivan van Rooyen has named an unchanged match 23 to take on Dragons RFC in Round 7 of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship at Emirates Airlines Park this Saturday.
After an impressive 61-19 victory over Zebre Parma last weekend, which saw the Joburgers dot down nine times, the Lions faithful will be hoping for more of the same this Saturday from a team who seem to be on the up following narrow defeats on their recent tour.
Forwards and Lineout Coach Barend Pieterse on how he and his management keep the guys motivated after a big victory last weekend.
“If I must be honest, it’s not difficult to motivate this group of players. The losses have been so close at the beginning, but we managed to walk away from those games with a point or two. It’s more about keeping their energy intact ahead of Saturday against Dragons.
“Dragons have quality players, and they have a good system-their lineouts in particular, so we are looking forward to a tough game on Saturday. It’s a 17:00 kick-off so we can’t really bargain on the sun like last week. Ultimately, we need to rock up this weekend and execute what we’ve been training on this week.”
Kick-off on Saturday is at 17:05
Emirates Lions Match 23
1. JP Smith
2. PJ Botha
3. Asenathi Ntlabakanye
4. Ruben Schoeman
5. Ruan Delport
6. Emmanuel Tshituka
7. Ruan Venter
8. Francke Horn
9. Morne van den Berg
10. Sanele Nohamba
11. Edwill van der Merwe
12. Marius Louw (c)
13. Henco van Wyk
14. Richard Kriel
15. Quan Horn
Replacements
16. Jaco Visagie
17. Corne Fourie
18. Ruan Smith
19. Willem Alberts
20. Hanru Sirgel
21. JC Pretorius
22. Jordan Hendrikse
23. Rabz Maxwane