Lions reveal their captain
TEAM ANNOUNCEMENT: New Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen has started to show his hand, ahead of the opening match of the Super Rugby season.
Van Rooyen named veteran Springbok flyhalf Elton Jantjies as captain for the season-opener against the Jaguares in Argentina on Saturday.
Jantjies, with 134 career Super Rugby caps (121 for the Super Lions) and 37 Tests, has scored 1092 points.
This include 12 tries, 261 conversions, 164 penalties and six drop-goals.
Adding his 13 Super matches and 11 points for the Stormers, he has scored 1103 points in Super Rugby; only the fifth player in the competition’s history to achieve this.
Dan Carter 1708, Morné Steyn 1449, Beauden Barrett 1211, Elton Jantjies 1103, Stirling Mortlock 1037 are the all-time leading scorers.
Courtnall Skosan holds the record for the most tries for the Lions, 33 after 72 matches.
Ruben Schoeman and Tiaan Swanepoel have been named in the starting XV to make their Super Rugby debuts.
Morné van der Berg and Manuel Rass will make their debuts from the bench.
Lions: 15 Tiaan Swanepoel, 14 Tyrone Green, 13 Duncan Matthews, 12 Dan Kriel, 11 Courtnall Skosan, 10 Elton Jantjies (captain), 9 Andre Warner, 8 Len Massyn, 7 Vincent Tshituka, 6 Marnus Schoeman, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Ruben Schoeman, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Pieter Jansen, 1 Dylan Smith.
Replacements: 16 Jan-Henning Campher, 17 Sti Sithole, 18 Carlu Sadie, 19 Wilhelm van der Sluys, 20 Ruan Vermaak, 21 Hacjivah Dayimani, 22 Morné van der Berg, 23 Manuel Rass.
Date: Saturday, February 1
Venue: Jose Amalfitani Stadium, Buenos Aires
Kick-off: 20.00 (23.00 GMT; 01.00, Sunday, February 2 SA time)
Referee: Rasta Rasivhenge (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Pablo Deluca (Argentina), Martin Cordoba (Argentina)
TMO: Santiago Borsani (Argentina)
