URC: Lions name unchanged side for Dragons after Zebre mauling

After an impressive 61-19 victory over Zebre Parma last weekend, which saw the Joburgers dot down nine times, the Lions faithful will be hoping for more of the same this Saturday from a team who seem to be on the up following narrow defeats on their recent tour.

Forwards and Lineout Coach Barend Pieterse on how he and his management keep the guys motivated after a big victory last weekend.

"If I must be honest, it's not difficult to motivate this group of players. The losses have been so close at the beginning, but we managed to walk away from those games with a point or two. It's more about keeping their energy intact ahead of Saturday against Dragons.

"Dragons have quality players, and they have a good system-their lineouts in particular, so we are looking forward to a tough game on Saturday. It's a 17:00 kick-off so we can't really bargain on the sun like last week. Ultimately, we need to rock up this weekend and execute what we've been training on this week."

Kick-off on Saturday is at 17:05.

Lions: 15 Quan Horn, 14 Richard Kriel, 13 Henco van Wyk, 12 Marius Louw (captain), 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Sanele Nohamba, 9 Morne van den Berg, 8 Francke Horn, 7 Ruan Venter, 6 Emmanuel Tshituka, 5 Ruan Delport, 4 Ruben Schoeman, 3 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 2 PJ Botha, 1 JP Smith.

Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Corne Fourie, 18 Ruan Smith, 19 Willem Alberts, 20 Hanru Sirgel, 21 JC Pretorius, 22 Jordan Hendrikse, 23 Rabz Maxwane

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