The Fidelity Securedrive Lions were given a massive boost ahead of their Vodacom United Rugby Championship quarterfinal showdown with defending champions Leinster in Dublin when two of their key players were cleared to be selected for the match.
Captain Francke Horn and midfielder Henco van Wyk, who were both struggling with injuries after the loss to Munster, have been declared fit and ready for action.
The news comes as a boost for the Lions, who have already lost three Springboks in the past few weeks with Morne van den Berg (bicep), Ruan Venter (knee) and Asenathi Ntlabakanye (doping ban) being removed from their roster.
Given they are massive underdogs for the game, the Lions will be hoping to score an upset, and both players will be key in these efforts.
Flanker JC Pretorius will bring up 50 caps for the Lions in the match, albeit off the bench, as he looks to make a big second half impact.
With Van den Berg out, Nico Steyn starts at scrumhalf with World Junior player of the year Haashim Pead on the bench. Erich Cronje comes in on the other wing after returning to the side.
Otherwise the rest of the squad is unchanged from the loss to Munster, with Richard Kriel also being cleared in his return to play protocols after suffering a concussion in the last game out.
The Lions lost their last clash against Leinster - three weeks ago - 31-7 after being in the game for 60 minutes before conceding late tries. Leinster have since had the hangover of a big loss in the Investec Champions’ Cup final dogging them this week.
Pretorius spoke this week glowingly of Siba Mahashe, who has made the six jersey his own in Pretorius’ absence.
“Siba is playing really good rugby, and he is a really good player,” Pretorius said, “But for me it is an honour and a privilege to get my 50th cap. Coming from Sevens I never thought I would get here and it actually arrived very quickly.”
Pretorius said it would be a challenge to stop a side like Leinster at the breakdown, especially given the scoreline against Bordeaux didn’t show how much work they did at the breakdown.
“I think Bordeaux made 250 tackles, I'm not sure how many positive tackles it was but that's how you put teams under pressure. They like to play quick rugby so we need to be making the right choices at the right time and not going into a bad trap of getting stuck in the breakdown when the defence needs you.”
Fidelity Securedrive Lions: Quan Horn; Angelo Davids, Henco van Wyk, Richard Kriel, Erich Cronje; Chris Smith, Nico Steyn; Francke Horn (captain), Batho Hlekani, Siba Mahashe, Darrien Landsberg, Reinhard Nothnagel, Sebastian Lombard, PJ Botha, SJ Kotze.
Replacements: Franco Marais, Eddie Davids, RF Schoeman, Ruan Delport, Siba Qoma, JC Pretorius, Rynhardt Jonker, Haashim Pead.