Lions Coach John Mitchell has opted to make two changes for his team’s final tour match against the Force this weekend, having named an unchanged team in the previous week. Both changes are straight swaps between starting and bench players.
CJ van der Linde is given a start ahead of JC Janse van Rensburg, while Tian Meyer starts ahead of Ross Cronje, the battle for the nine jersey continuing between these two ex-Sharks.
The Lions will be playing for their first win in eleven outings, having lost ten on the trot since their opening round win over the Cheetahs. Once home though, the Lions face the three top South African teams, two of which will be away from home, as well as the Rebels in Johannesburg.
Lions: 15 Andries Coetzee , 14 Deon Van Rensburg , 13 Lionel Mapoe , 12 Jaco Taute , 11 Michael Killian , 10 Elton Jantjies , 9 Tian Meyer , 8 Joshua Strauss (c) , 7 Grant Hattingh , 6 Derick Minnie , 5 Ruan Botha , 4 Franco Van der Merwe , 3 Patric Cilliers , 2 Callie Visagie , 1 CJ Van der Linde
Reserves , 16 Martin Bezuidenhout , 17 JC Janse van Rensburg , 18 Cobus Grobbelaar , 19 Jaco Kriel , 20 Ross Cronje , 21 Ruan Combrinck , 22 James Kamana

‘Battle for the none jersey’ 😆
That about sums it all up for the Lions 😥
Taute played good last week, and Mapoe also looked better on attack but the defense and handling of the Lions still needs a lot of work, glad to see CJ in the starting line up