Ross Cronje, the last man to lift an age-group trophy in Sharks colours way back in 2008, returns to the Lions team to face the Sharks this weekend in one of two changes to Johan Ackermann’s starting team. Cronje is one of several Lions players with strong links to the Sharks and Durban.
Faf de Klerk is demoted to the bench this week, with the other change seeing former Bulls player Rohan Janse van Rensburg come in at centre for benched Howard Mnisi. Mnisi is another who played his age group rugby in Durban , before stints in PE and Kimberley led to his Lions breakthrough.
Andries Coetzee, Ruan Combricnk, Warren Whiteley and Julian Redelinghuys are the other member of the squad who have either played for the Sharks at some level, or been schooled in the province. Lionel Mapoe did not ever take the field in black and white, but managed to run up some impressive bills at the Kings Park medical suite all the same.
Lions : 15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Ruan Combrinck, 13 Lionel Mapoe, 12 Rohan Janse van Rensburg, 11 Courtnall Skosan, 10 Elton Jantjies, 9 Ross Cronjé, 8 Warren Whiteley (c), 7 Warwick Tecklenburg, 6 Jaco Kriel, 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Andries Ferreira/Lourens Erasmus, 3 Julian Redelinghuys, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Dylan Smith.
Subs: 16 Armand van der Merwe, 17 Corné Fourie, 18 Ruan Dreyer, 19 Ruan Ackermann, 20 Cyle Brink, 21 Faf de Klerk, 22 Jaco van der Walt, 23 Howard Mnisi.

Good side…
GO SHARKS!!
Going to be a very hard game!!! Go Sharks!!!
Lionel Mapoe did not ever take the field in black and white, but managed to run up some impressive bills at the Kings Park medical suite all the same.
We are the Lions, hear us roar. The unstoppable force vs the immovable object. Lets do this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are The Sharks…feel our bite!!! 😉
Play a crap game for the Lions and get benched.
one or two more and they can be the Golden Ruans
@Salmonoid the Subtle (Comment 6) : Coincidence. It’s part of the player rotation plan 🙂
@West Indies Cricket Board (Comment 7) : Pity we lost Ruan Botha after his junior years 🙂
@Baylion (Comment 8) : ja ja ja that’s what you say we still believe what we believe ;-P
Esterhuizen vs Jansen van Rensburg. Good matchup there
Should be a cracker of a game, looking forward to it.