Cheetahs eye redemption in Cardiff as Lions brace for Pau at Ellis Park

The Cheetahs travelled to Wales this week to take on Cardiff Rugby on Saturday afternoon. The team from the Free State drew against USAP on Sunday and will be eager to end the first tour on a high note.

The team has made two changes for the all-important clash. Flanker Oupa Mohoje is elevated to the starting line-up, switching places with Friedle Oliver, while Cohen Jasper replace Prince Nkabinde on the left wing.

"We pride ourselves on our forwards pack." said flanker Gideon van der Merwe. "Coach Sakkie (Izak van der Westhuizen) drives us hard, and the standards are high. It is good to see that we can dominate up front in Europe. We need to keep that going and work more on our attacking and defensive side."

Meanwhile, the Lions are back at Ellis Park where they will host Pau in their second-round Challenge Cup clash, having suffered a 30-14 defeat against Ospreys in Wales last weekend.

The Gauteng outfit has yet to confirm their team for Saturday's clash but are likely to be without fullback Quan Horn and Bok prospect, centre Henco van Wyk, who are both nursing injuries and did not take part in training on Thursday.

Horn's replacement Richard Kriel is also a doubt for the clash, leaving the Lions a little bit short-handed at the No 15 position.

Lions assistant coach Ricardo Loubscher said they were ware of Pau who started well with a victory against English outfit Newcastle on home soil a week ago.

"They are physical and they've got some big boys. They can attack so your defence must be good, but from our point of view, we want to make sure we put them under pressure," Loubscher said.

"We really need a good start so for the first 20 minutes we want to be direct and play with tempo and accuracy."

Toyota Cheetahs - 15 Michael Annies, 14 Munier Hartzenberg, 13 Carel-Jan Coetzee, 12 Ali Mgijima, 11 Cohen Jasper, 10 Ethan Wentzel, 9 Ruben de Haas, 8 Jeandre Rudolph, 7 Oupa Mohoje, 6 Gideon van der Merwe, 5 Victor Sekekete (c), 4 Carl Wegner, 3 Aranos Coetzee, 2 Louis van der Westhuizen, 1 Schalk Ferreira.

Replacements: 16 Vernon Paulo, 17 Hencus van Wyk, 18 Robert Hunt, 19 Pierre-Raymond Uys, 20 Friedle Olivier, 21 Daniel Maartens, 22 Rewan Kruger, 23 George Lourens.