VIDEO: The difficult choices the Lions have to make
SPOTLIGHT: The Lions will head into their United Rugby Championship Round 13 clash against Cardiff in a healthy spot when it comes to depth in certain positions.
Ahead of their trip to Wales, the Johannesburg-based side received a boost with the news that star players Quan Horn, Henco van Wyk and Ruan Venter were all available for selection.
The big blow for the Lions is that they will be without scrumhalf Morne van den Berg, but it does allow Nico Steyn to show his worth in these crucial games.
The question facing head coach Ivan van Rooyen is whether he will throw those returning stars straight into the starting XV or rely on players who filled the void well in recent matches against the Sharks in Johannesburg and Durban.
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“It [the returning players] does give us confidence – all of them have been very good for us during the season,” said Lions assistant coach Barend Pieterse.
“The guys that have played for us while they were injured were really good.
“It isn’t an easy decision to bring a player in because of the way the other guys played.
“It says a lot about that as well. We are lucky to have that depth at the moment.”
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The Lions have caused teams plenty of problems with their all-out attacking approach and it will be interesting to see if they will tweak certain aspects of their game while on tour.
“You always have to modify a little bit,” said Pieterse.
“Even back home when we played that last game against the Sharks [in Durban], the conditions were a little bit more difficult.
“We will have to modify it a little bit, but we also don’t want to go away from our strengths and what has been working for us.
“They are predicting a little bit of rain, but we will play the situation on the day.
“Our strength is keeping the ball and I don’t see ourselves changing too much on the day.”
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