Johannesburg - The Lions have not given up on their mathematical chance of qualifying for the United Rugby Championship play-offs and they reckon they have a good chance of upsetting Leinster on Saturday in Johannesburg.
That is the feeling of Marius Louw, who captains a Lions team that will be up against a Leinster side that is not at full strength — the table-toppers qualified for the quarter-finals long ago and have spared many of their front-line troops from the long trek to Africa.
"The mood in the camp has been great and you can see it in the way that we have been playing over the past few games," Louw said.
"We're not out of the competition completely so I wouldn't necessarily throw us out of the bus just yet. In essence, we'll do what we can, as best as we can and for as long as we can and see how that goes.”
In changes to the Lions team, young gun Rhynardt Rijnsburger gets his first start of the season at loosehead prop, with JP Smith moving to the bench. Ruan Delport also slots in for the injured Ruan Venter in the No 7 jersey, while Stean Pienaar comes in for Rabz Maxwane at right wing.
Both Venter and Maxwane suffered head knocks in last week's game and have been rested as a precaution.
The Lions (38 points) are 11th on the URC log and are still in with an outside chance of making the quarter-finals. They are three points behind the Sharks, who lie eighth and currently occupy the final quarter-final spot.
Saturday's clash at Ellis Park kicks off at 4pm. As part of a double-header of URC action, the Bulls also tackle Zebre at the same ground at 1pm
Next weekend, the four teams will move to Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria where the Lions will tackle Zebre and the Bulls duel Leinster.
Lions team: 15 Quan Horn, 14 Stean Pienaar, 13 Manuel Rass, 12 Marius Louw (captain), 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Gianni Lombard, 9 Sanele Nohamba, 8 Francke Horn, 7 Ruan Delport, 6 Jaco Kriel, 5 Ruben Schoeman, 4 Willem Alberts, 3 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 2 PJ Botha, 1 Rhynardt Rijnsburger
Replacements: 16 Morne Brandon, 17 JP Smith, 18 Ruan Dreyer, 19 Darrien Landsberg, 20 Travis Gordon, 21 Morne van den Berg, 22 Rynhardt Jonker, 23 Andries Coetzee.
@MikeGreenaway67
IOL Sport