Emile van Heerden handed Lions debut against Munster

Lions head coach Ivan van Rooyen has handed former Sharks player Emile van Heerden his Lions debut against Munster in Cork on Friday.

The URC clash kicks off at 21:35 South African time.

Van Heerden, the son of former Springbok lock Fritz van Heerden, will wear the No 7 jersey alongside Jarod Cairns and Emmanuel Tshituka in the back row.

Elsewhere, Stean Pienaar is included on the wing in place of Sibahle Maxwane, while scrumhalf Morne van den Berg also gets a start.

There is also a new second-row combination in the form of Darrien Landsberg and Ruan Venter, while hooker Michael van Vuuren gets his chance off the bench.

The clash against Munster is the Lions' first fixture of a four-week tour of Europe which comprises Friday's URC game, followed by two Challenge Cup games, before concluding with another URC match on January 28 against Connacht.

"Friday will be a good test for our guys against Munster on tour," said Lions scrum coach Julian Redelinghuys.

"The Munster pack has been in good form recently, so Friday will be an exciting challenge for this team especially the guys who'll be getting an opportunity to feature.

"We all know you don't grow when it's easy, you grow when it's tough - and Friday will be tough especially in these conditions away from home.

"Playing at Musgrave Park will be new for us as none of our current squad members have played there. In saying that, we tend to strive under the new and unknown so this will certainly be one of those."

Lions: 15 Quan Horn, 14 Stean Pienaar, 13 Henco van Wyk, 12 Marius Louw (captain), 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Jordan Hendrikse, 9 Morne van den Berg, 8 Emmanuel Tshituka, 7 Emile van Heerden, 6 Jarod Cairns, 5 Darrien Landsberg, 4 Ruan Venter, 3 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 2 Pieter Botha, 1 Jean-Pierre Smith.

Replacements: 16 Michael van Vuuren, 17 Morgan Naudé, 18 Ruan Smith, 19 Willem Alberts, 20 Sibusiso Sangweni, 21 Andre Warner, 22 Gianni Lombard, 23 Manuel Rass.