Odendaal back to lead Lions against Connacht

Centre Burger Odendaal is back to lead the Lions in Saturday's United Rugby Championship clash against Irish outfit Connacht in Johannesburg.

Odendaal replaces Manuel Rass, who started at inside centre in the 37-10 loss to the Sharks in Durban on 9 April.

In the only other change to the starting XV, Ruan Dreyer comes in to replace Jannie du Plessis at tighthead prop.

"The big thing for us now is to bounce back and it all starts with Connacht on Saturday," backline, attack and skills coach Ricardo Loubscher said.

"Key for us at this stage of the competition is to do well in our upcoming two games at home before we play Dragons away in our final fixture."

The former Springbok fullback believes Connacht will come to Ellis Park eager to build on their win record against all South African opposition.

"Connacht are a very good side, who play for each other and carry quite a bit of belief in how they do things.

"We will need to find ways of breaking them down and one way we believe we can achieve that, is by playing to our strengths which we’ve executed quite well in previous weeks," Loubscher concluded.

Saturday's clash at Ellis Park kicks off at 16:05.

15 Quan Horn, 14 Rabz Maxwane, 13 Wandisile Simelane, 12 Burger Odendaal (captain), 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Jordan Hendrikse, 9 Morne van den Berg, 8 Emmanuel Tshituka, 7 Vincent Tshituka, 6 Francke Horn, 5 Reinhard Nothnagel, 4 Ruben Schoeman, 3 Ruan Dreyer, 2 PJ Botha, 1 Sti Sithole

Substitutes: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 JP Smith, 18 Carlu Sadie, 19 Ruan Venter, 20 Sibusiso Sangweni, 21 Andre Warner, 22 Manuel Rass, 23 Tiaan Swanepoel