Jaco Kriel to lead Lions in return URC clash against Bulls

Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen has named his team for their trip to Pretoria to face the Bulls in a return United Rugby Championship clash.

Springbok flank Jaco Kriel takes over the captaincy from centre Burger Odendaal, who suffered a head injury in last weekend's 34-10 loss to the Bulls at Ellis Park.

Tiaan Swanepoel gets a chance at flyhalf in place of Fred Zeilinga, with centre Matt More getting a run at inside centre in Odendaal's absence.

On the bench, exciting prospects PJ Steenkamp and Quan Horn are also in line to make their URC debuts.

"It's an opportunity once again for others to step up and show us what they can do on a big stage. We spoke last week about chances and how we as a group pride ourselves in creating these kinds of opportunities for players," Van Rooyen said.

The Lions mentor is confident that his charges will produce a better showing on Saturday.

"Both players and management had difficult conversations post the Bulls fixture and we felt that a better showing was required if we wanted to be competitive this week," Van Rooyen said.

"We felt our scrums and mauls were a highlight for us against the Bulls so it's something we would like to capitalise on come Saturday."

Saturday's clash at Loftus Versfeld kicks off at 15:00.

Bulls

TBA

Lions

15 Divan Rossouw, 14 Stean Pienaar, 13 Manuel Rass, 12 Matt More, 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Tiaan Swanepoel, 9 Andre Warner, 8 Francke Horn, 7 Emmanuel Tshituka, 6 Jaco Kriel (captain), 5 Ruben Schoeman, 4 Ruhan Straeuli, 3 Carlu Sadie, 2 PJ Botha, 1 Sti Sithole

Substitutes: 16 Morne Brandon, 17 Morgan Naude, 18 Ruan Dreyer, 19 Ruan Venter, 20 PJ Steenkamp, 21 Morne van den Berg, 22 EW Viljoen, 23 Quan Horn