Lions stalwart and Springbok flanker Jaco Kriel will run out for his final professional game in a rejigged 23 to face Zebre in Pretoria tomorrow.

Kriel, who won the Currie Cup in 2015 and was a star performer in a dominant Lions squad that made three consecutive Super Rugby finals in 2016, 2017 and 2018, has called time on his 13-year professional career.

In team news, winger Rabz Maxwane returns to the starting XV, as does flanker Ruan Venter, while scrumhalf Morne van den Berg is due to make his 50th appearance across all competitions.

Assistant coach Ricardo Loubscher believes there’s no lack of motivation ahead of The Pride’s final match of the 2022/23 URC campaign at Loftus Versfeld this weekend. The Lions play the opening match, followed by the Vodacom Bulls and Leinster in what is expected to be a blockbuster double-header.

Out of top-eight contention, Loubscher believes this weekend will be an opportunity to fix the wrongs from last week’s 36-39 loss against Leinster by being more clinical.

“We expect them [Zebre] to come out guns blazing after their defeat against the Bulls as I’m sure they, as we do, want to finish the campaign on a high,” he says.

“From our point of view, we’ve prepared well this week and placed quite a bit of emphasis on improvement ahead of Saturday. That’s the motivation for us; to finish on a high while improving from last week’s performance.”

“We scored five tries against Leinster last week Saturday where we probably missed out on a couple more, so it’s about finishing off those missed opportunities and being as clinic as possible on Saturday against the Italians.”

Your Emirates Lions Match 23 to do duty in their final Vodacom United Rugby Championship outing.

📅: Sat, 22 Apr
⏰: 13:00
🆚: Zebre Parma
🏟️: Loftus Versfeld
🎟: https://t.co/xU8XDndZFb#LionsPride🦁@vodacom | #URC | #UnitedWeRise pic.twitter.com/VKyT7w3y6W

— Lions (@LionsRugbyCo) April 21, 2023