United Rugby Championship: Lions pick Rudolph Straeuli’s son to face Sharks

Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen has named his team to take on the Sharks at Ellis Park when the United Rugby Championship resumes this weekend.

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Ruhan Straeuli, the son of Lions CEO Rudolph Straeuli, will start in the No 7 jersey in place of the injured Vincent Tshituka.

Meanwhile, Lock Pieter Jansen van Vuren returns to the starting XV after missing the Lions’ overseas tour through injury.

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“We are pleased to have Pieter back. He was great for us on tour before injury halted his momentum. He’s trained really well over the past few weeks, and he is eager to get stuck in again,” Van Rooyen said.

Regarding the change to the loose trio, Van Rooyden said: “It’s unfortunate to lose Vincent due to an injury setback, but the opportunity now presents itself for Ruhan to come in and do the job for us in concert with Jaco Kriel and Francke Horn.”

Centre Burger Odendaal will captain the side.

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“It’s great to be back for URC action especially on our home turf at Ellis Park. It’ll be our first URC fixture at home since the campaign started so we’re pretty excited about that,” Van Rooyen said.

The match, along with the clash between the Bulls and Stormers at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria, are the only two scheduled for this weekend in the United Rugby Championship.

Lions are best of the four SA teams to date

The Johannesburg match will kick off at 15:00 followed by the Pretoria clash at 17:05.

The Lions are currently down in 11th place in the 16-team log with 11 points after five matches.

The Sharks are just below their opponents on Saturday in the standings with nine points from their five matches to date.

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TEAMS

Lions

15 EW Viljoen, 14 Edwill van der Merwe, 13 Wandisile Simelane, 12 Burger Odendaal (captain,) 11 Rabz Maxwane, 10 Fred Zeilinga, 9 Andre Warner, 8 Francke Horn, 7 Ruhan Straeuli, 6 Jaco Kriel, 5 Pieter Jansen van Vuren, 4 Ruben Schoeman, 3 Carlu Sadie, 2 Jaco Visagie, 1 Sti Sithole

Substitutes: 16 PJ Botha, 17 Morgan Naude, 18 Ruan Dreyer, 19 Willem Alberts, 20 Emmanuel Tshituka, 21 Morne van den Berg, 22 Matt More, 23 Tiaan Swanepoel

Sharks

TBA

Date: Saturday, 22 January
Venue: Ellis Park, Johannesburg
Kick-off: 15:00
Referee: AJ Jacobs
Assistant referees: Rasta Rasivhenge & Aimee Barrett-Theron
TMO: Cwengile Jadezweni