Injury forces Lions coach's hand

TEAM ANNOUNCEMENT: Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen has been forced into making a change ahead of his team’s Rainbow Cup South Africa round four match, when they welcome the Bulls to Ellis Park on Saturday.

While consistency and experience were key factors again for Ban Rooyen, he was forced to make a change to the starting line-.

Len Massyn comes into the starting XV for the Francke Horn.

Horn rolled his ankle during last week’s heartbreaking loss to the Stormers and is not available this week.

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Emirates Lions injury report

Francke Horn rolled his ankle during the match this past weekend, but will be observed by the medical team to determine the extent of the injury.

Video: Tiaan Swanepoel gives an update on his recovery process.#LionsPride pic.twitter.com/ao0WW0EKIt

&mdash, Emirates Lions (@LionsRugbyCo) May 17, 2021

“Consistency is the main thing for us,” Van Rooyen said.

“We are looking for consistency in training, consistency in attitude and consistency in team selection.

“We are facing the team at the top of the log and it will be tough.

“We have a lot of respect for the Bulls,” the coach added.

Lions: 15 EW Viljoen, 14 Rabz Maxwane, 13 Wandisile Simelane, 12 Burger Odendaal (captain), 11 Courtnall Skosan, 10 Jordan Hendrikse, 9 André Warner, 8 Len Massyn, 7 Vincent Tshituka, 6 MJ Pelser, 5 Reinhard Nothnagel, 4 Ruben Schoeman, 3 Carlu Sadie, 2 Jaco Visagie, 1 Sithembiso Sithole.
Replacements: 16 Pieter Botha, 17 Ruan Dreyer, 18 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 19 Willem Alberts, 20 Emmanuel Tshituka, 21 Morné van den Berg, 22 Fred Zeilinga, 23 Manuel Rass.

Date: Saturday, May 22
Venue: Ellis Park, Johannesburg
Kick-off: 15.30 (13.30 GMT)
Referee: AJ Jacobs (SARU, 2nd competition game)
Assistant referees: Aimee Barrett-Theron, Morne Ferreira (both SARU)
TMO: Marius Jonker (SARU)