Lions ready to let big guns loose against Sharks

The Lions are ready to let their big guns loose when the Sharks visit Ellis Park in a Preparation Series match this Saturday.

It will be the Lions’ third match in the series after recording wins of 32-28 against the Pumas and 54-24 against the Eastern Province Elephants.

Lions coach Cash van Rooyen explained his thinking about resting the senior players for the first two matches.

“It was always the plan to give the youngsters exposure in the opening two games,” said Van Rooyen, “and now we’ll let some of the seniors return for the last two games against the Sharks and the Stormers.”

It could mean big-name players like lock Willem Alberts, flankers Vincent Tshituka and Jaco Kriel as well as props Sti Sithole and Carlu Sadie, just to mention a few, returning for the Sharks match.

“It would have been unfair of us to expect the senior players to go straight from a Currie Cup campaign into a next competition, so we had to manage them accordingly,” said Van Rooyen.

Two players who picked up injuries against the Elephants, namely centre James Mollentze and flyhalf Tiaan Swanepoel, have received quite different prognoses.

“James seems to have done his MCL (knee) which means he could be out for some time. He’s been sent for scans sso we’ll wait for that news,” said Van Rooyen.

“And in Tiaan’s case, he suffered from some stiff muscle against the Elephants and was withdrawn from the game as a preventative measure. He’ll be fine.”

The Lions, who won comfortably against the Elephants in a game that was marred by injuries and red cards, will be hoping to find more rhythm and momentum this weekend.

“It was really a tough game where we had to cope with a lot of stop-start scenarios and that prevented us from gaining much momentum,” said Van Rooyen.

“It was only really towards the end of that game that we managed to gain some continuity and scored three good tries towards the end.”