Lions lose captain, Louw to stand in as skipper against Stormers

Marius Louw has been named as Lions captain in the absence of Reinhard Nothnagel for their New Year’s Eve clash against the Stormers in Cape Town.

The Lions make the trip to the Mother City this weekend to face current champions the Stormers in round 11 of the United Rugby Championship on New Year’s Eve at the Cape Town Stadium.

Following last week’s record attendance over Christmas (117 000) across all URC matches in round 10 of the competition, this weekend’s fixtures are likely to be achieve similar numbers as local derbies take centre stage.

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Centre Louw leads the Lions side on Saturday night in absence of regular skipper Reinhard Nothnagel who suffered an ankle injury against the Sharks. Returning to partner Louw in the midfield is Henco van Wyk, who slots back in at 13 after missing out last week.

Young Jarod Cairns cracks the starting XV in what has been a steady rise for the former Paul Roos Gymnasium learner through the Lions’ junior ranks. He will partner with Ruan Venter, who shifts to No 7 with Emmanuel Tshituka packing down at the back of the scrum.

Elsewhere, Morne van den Berg, Manuel Rass and Morgan Naude will all make their return from their respective injuries via the bench as impact players.

Kick off is at 19:00 on Saturday (SA time).

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LIONS URC TEAM TO FACE STORMERS: 

Lions — 15 Quan Horn, 14 Rabz Maxwane, 13 Henco van Wyk, 12 Marius Louw, 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Jordan Hendrikse, 9 Sanele Nohamba, 8 Emmanuel Tshituka, 7 Ruan Venter, 6 Jarod Cairns, 5 Pieter Jansen van Vuren, 4 Willem Alberts, 3 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 2 PJ Botha, 1 JP Smith.
Subs: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Morgan Naude, 18 Ruan Smith, 19 Ruben Schoeman, 20 Sibusiso Sangweni, 21 Morne van den Berg, 22 Gianni Lombard, 23 Manuel Rass.

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