The final match on Saturday involving a South African team, excluding the Springboks in Paris, is in the Scottish capital, where the Emirates Lions take on Edinburgh at Hive Stadium at 18:00.
The Scots, who have lost their last six Vodacom URC matches against South African franchises, are still looking for their first win over Jozi’s Pride, having lost at home in the fourth round just over a year ago, and the previous season in Johannesburg.
While the Emirates Lions ran the DHL Stormers close last weekend, Edinburgh took a lot of confidence from their away victory over Dragons in Newport, where Scotland international and former Munster stalwart Ben Healy kicked 17 points, sending a timely reminder to the Gautengers that they must be disciplined on Saturday evening.
Emirates Lions' speedster Edwill van der Merwe returns to the starting lineup missing out on selection last week due to injury, but slots right back into his familiar left-wing position after being cleared to play. Last weekend’s try-scorers from the replacements bench Ruan Venter and Henco van Wyk crack the nod in the starting XV.
Speaking ahead of Saturday, Emirates lions Head Coach Ivan van Rooyen believes he has the right balance of players on this tour who have the ability to vary his side’s play in conditions a far cry from sunny South Africa.
“I’m really excited about the group we have going into this 4-week tour. I feel we’ve gone with a dynamic mix of players who can go physical and where needs be, have the option to select players to speed the game up.
“We are expecting strong line-ups from all four teams we will be facing with a couple of their internationals reporting back for club duty. Pitch conditions are something we are also familiar with in that there will be a combination of grass and artificial surfaces over the next four weeks.”
“We’ve learnt a lot from this past weekend. We played with good intensity and when we were physically dominant in certain parts of the game, we had the makings of a championship team. Unfortunately, there were moments where we were inconsistent and that for us is a big work on ahead of Saturday and the rest of the tour,” he concluded.
Edinburgh Rugby welcome the return of six internationalists to its matchday squad for tomorrow evening’s United Rugby Championship home opener.
Blair Kinghorn (full-back), Grant Gilchrist (lock), Hamish Watson (openside flanker), Viliame Mata (number 8), Ewan Ashman (replacement hooker) and WP Nel (replacement tighthead prop) are all named in the capital side’s 23 for the Round 2 clash.
On his team selection, Senior Coach Sean Everitt said: “We’re delighted to welcome back a number of internationalists to our matchday squad, they add further strength and experience as we take on a hugely competitive Emirates Lions side.
“We’re really excited to get back to Hive Stadium after opening the Championship on the road and it will be brilliant to be back in front of the Edinburgh supporters – they really do provide us with an energy and a spark.
“Although we weren’t altogether pleased with last weekend’s performance, we showed plenty of physicality and resilience to come away with a hard-fought win away from home.
“We’ll need to repeat those levels of physicality tomorrow night if we’re to come out on top – it’s set to be a massive night of rugby at Hive Stadium.”
Teams:
Emirates Lions: 1 Corne Fourie, 2 PJ Botha, 3 Ruan Dreyer, 4 Ruben Schoeman, 5 Darrien-Lane Landsberg, 6 Emmanuel Tshituka, 7 Ruan Venter, 8 Francke Horn, 9 Sanele Nohamba, 10 Jordan Hendrikse, 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 12 Marius Louw (c), 13 Henco van Wyk, 14 Richard Kriel, 15 Quan Horn. Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Morgan Naude, 18 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 19 Willem Alberts, 20 Hanru Sirgel, 21 Morne van den Berg, 22 Rynhardt Jonke, 23 Andries Coetzee.
Edinburgh: 1 Boan Venter, 2 Dave Cherry, 3 Javan Sebastian, 4 Glen Young, 5 Grant Gilchrist, 6 Luke Crosbie, 7 Hamish Watson, 8 Viliame Mata, 9 Ben Healy, 10 Ben Vellacott, 11 Wes Goosen, 12 Matt Currie, 13 Mark Bennett, 14 Ross McCann, 15 Blair Kinghorn. Replacements: 16 Ewan Ashman, 17 Robin Hislop, 18 WP Nel, 19 Marshall Sykes, 20 Connor Boyle, 21 Charlie Shiel, 22 Cammy Scott, 23 Chris Dean.
