Match News, Press Release, Team News, United Rugby Championship
27th Oct 2022
The Emirates Lions have made one forced change ahead of their local United Rugby Championship derby against DHL Stormers.
The Emirates Lions have made one forced change ahead of their local United Rugby Championship derby against DHL Stormers this Saturday at Emirates Airline Park. Loosehead prop Morgan Naude replaces Sti Sithole on the bench. Sithole suffered a concussion during training earlier this week.
Earlier this week, Scrum Coach Julian Redelinghuys acknowledged the quality of the reigning champions but preferred to focus on his side’s preparations ahead of Saturday’s encounter.
“There’s no doubt that the Stormers are a quality side, but in saying that our focus this week has been on our plans and how we want to execute on Saturday. We control what we can, with a sharp focus on our processes in the build-up.”
On the Lions’ performances against local opposition, the former Bok prop believes his side has the ability to turn results around in this campaign.
“We certainly want to improve our performances against local opposition. We believe if we can better our performances in local URC derbies, the results will take care of themselves. There’s no better opportunity than this Saturday at home in front of our home fans,” he concluded.
Kick-off is at 16:00
Emirates Lions
JP Smith
PJ Botha
Ruan Dreyer
Willem Alberts
Reinhard Nothnagel (c)
Emmanuel Tshituka
Ruan Venter
Francke Horn
Sanele Nohamba
Jordan Hendrikse
Quan Horn
Marius Louw
Henco van Wyk
Edwill van der Merwe
Andries Coetzee
Replacements
Jaco Visagie
Morgan Naude
Ruan Smith
Pieter Jansen van Vuren
Sibusiso Sangweni
Morne van den Berg
Gianni Lombard
Zander du Plessis
DHL Stormers
TBA