It may feel like the eyes of the rugby world are on France at the moment, however, this weekend, the next generation of Springboks will start the new season when the third edition of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship kicks off across South Africa, Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Italy.
The South African season opener in Johannesburg pits the DHL Stormers against the only local side that has managed to beat them in the Vodacom URC, the Emirates Lions on Saturday at 16:05 in Johannesburg.
Amazingly, the Capetonians have beaten the Vodacom Bulls six times straight, and have won three and drawn one against the Hollywoodbets Sharks.
The Emirates Lions, though, beat the DHL Stormers in their first league fixture, way back on 4 December 2021, by 37-19 in Cape Town. The last time these teams met in Johannesburg, the visitors won by 31-22 in round seven on 29 October 2022.
Emirates Lions' Coach Ivan van Rooyen has named an exciting match 23. The Lions boss has opted with experience and consistency with the likes of Corne Fourie and Ruan Dreyer upfront as well as skipper Marius Louw, Sanele Nohamba and fullback Quan Horn who’ve all featured prominently last season.
Speaking earlier this week, new member of the Lions management team Barend Pieterse says he has been impressed with his new side’s work rate during the pre-season and leading up to Saturday’s clash with the Cape side. Fresh from his role with Namibian national rugby team, the former Lions man is no stranger to European competition having coached at the Southern Kings in the then Pro 14.
“The way the guys train, the work they do off the field and before training; they are in here early doing their pre and rehab consistently therefore you can’t fault their effort in all the training sessions I’ve been involved in, which bodes well for the season ahead.
Something else that’s encouraging is that we’ve kept the core of the side from last season which is important for us. This helps us with building a bit of consistency which could be the key pillar for our success not only ahead of Saturday, but for the season,” he concludes.
DHL Stormers' captain Salmaan Moerat will make his return from injury. Moerat is one of five Springboks in the starting line-up as he is joined by fullback Warrick Gelant, scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies, No.8 Evan Roos and hooker Joseph Dweba in the run-on team, while Springbok prop Lizo Gqoboka and wing Ben Loader are set to make their DHL Stormers debuts from the replacements bench.
DHL Stormers Head Coach John Dobson said that it is a credit to the depth of the squad that despite four players being away at the World Cup, it was still incredibly tough to pick a matchday 23 for the opening game."
“It has been a great pre-season and obviously every player in the squad was desperate to be involved in this match, so there were some tough selections."
“We are looking forward to the challenge of going up to Johannesburg to get the campaign underway.
“There has been a lot of hard work put in to get us to this point and we can’t wait to get going on Saturday,” he said.
Teams:
Emirates Lions: 1 Corne Fourie, 2 PJ Botha, 3 Ruan Dreyer, 4 Ruben Schoeman, 5 Darrien-Lane Landsberg, 6 Sibusiso Sangweni, 7 Emmanuel Tshituka, 8 Francke Horn, 9 Sanele Nohamba, 10 Jordan Hendrikse, 11 Rabz Maxwane, 12 Marius Louw (c), 13 Manuel Rass, 14 Richard Kriel, 15 Quan Horn. Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Morgan Naude, 18 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 19 Willem Alberts, 20 Ruan Venter, 21 Morne van den Berg, 22 Henco van Wyk, 23 Andries Coetzee.
DHL Stormers: 1 Kwenzo Blose, 2 Joseph Dweba, 3 Neethling Fouche, 4 Salmaan Moerat (c), 5 Ruben van Heerden, 6 Marcel Theunissen, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 8 Evan Roos, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 10 Clayton Blommetjies, 11 Leolin Zas, 12 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 13 Ruhan Nel, 14 Angelo Davids, 15 Warrick Gelant. Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Lizo Gqoboka, 18 Brok Harris, 19 Gary Porter, 20 Hacjivah Dayimani, 21 Willie Engelbrecht, 22 Paul de Wet, 23 Ben Loader.