Hollywoodbets Sharks head coach John Plumtree said he expects a brutal contest between two powerful front rows when the Sharks and Lions lock horns at Kings Park on Saturday at 17:00 (SA Time).
Ox Nche will pack down with hooker Fez Mbatha and tighthead Hanro Jacobs. Kerron van Vuuren, loosehead Ntuthuko Mchunu and new recruit Joel Hintz at tighthead will be on the bench.
Emirates Lions' front row, Asenathi Ntlabakanye, PJ Botha and JP Smith will test the Hollywoodbets Sharks, who are acutely aware that their opponents are dangerous because they possess one thing his team doesn’t: continuity.
“The Lions have a lot of continuity in terms of selection and a group that’s played together for a long time, it’s a pretty cohesive squad, not quite the biggest, but they play really well together with what they have," Plumtree said.
“We want our scrum to do really well, it creaked a little last week against the Stormers, so hopefully we’ll see a big effort up."
“The Lions scrum really square and straight, they don’t walk around like we found the Stormers doing last week. Hopefully, it’ll be a good scrum battle and plenty of power going square and straight and make it easy for the ref to manage and take out all the 50-50 calls."
New Zealander tighthead Hintz has joined the Sharks on a short-term contract until the end of January.
“He has played for wider training groups in New Zealand, hasn’t had too super a career as such but had a really good NPC career with Hawke’s Bay to date."
"He’s also got a powerlifting career behind him, so he’s quite a powerful and pretty strong boy.”
“It was really a case of seeing what he can do for us. I am not happy with the depth we have at tighthead prop at the moment. Hopefully we will have Vincent Koch back in about six weeks.”
Apart from Koch, who has been struggling with a troublesome knee since the World Cup, fellow Bok Coenie Oosthuizen is also sidelined with an undisclosed injury at present.