The Lions go into the game on the back of a confidence-boosting win against the Bulls.
Springbok tourists Asenathi Ntlabakanye and Morne van den Berg have been included in the Lions team for their Challenge Cup opener against Benetton at Ellis Park on Saturday (3pm).
Both Ntlabakanye and Van den Berg featured for the Boks on their European tour during November and will take confidence into this Saturday’s match.
In fact, the whole Lions team will be pumped up after beating the Bulls in a URC game at Loftus last weekend.
The other Boks in the team are fullback Quan Horn and flank Ruan Venter.
“Every time I come back from the Boks, I learn things I can bring here. We have to maintain that standard heading into this weekend,” said Ntlabakanye this week.
He added the win against the Bulls had been reward for the effort put in during the November international break and was hopeful the Lions could back up that performance with a good showing this Saturday.
“It was good to see the hard work pay off. To win at Loftus for the first time since 2023 was massive,” said the big prop. “But we can’t be a one-performance team. We have to prove we can go back-to-back.”
Saturday’s line-up sees the return of Erich Cronje at outside centre, in place of the injured Henco van Wyk, alongside Bronson Mills. The only other change is on the bench with Richard Kriel as one of the impact players.
Lions: Quan Horn, Kelly Mpeku, Erich Cronje, Bronson Mills, Eduan Keyter, Chris Smith, Morne van den Berg, Francke Horn (capt), Ruan Venter, Jarod Cairns, Reinhard Nothnagel, Etienne Oosthuizen, Asenathi Ntlabakanye, Franco Marais, SJ Kotze. Bench: Morne Brandon, Edward Davids, RF Schoeman, Darrien Landsberg, Renzo du Plessis, Nico Steyn, Richard Kriel, Gianni Lombard
