Franco van der Merwe
Springbok lock forward Franco van der Merwe has recovered fully from the ankle injury that forced him to miss much of the Lions’ Super Rugby campaign, and has been drafted straight in to the starting side by head coach Johan Ackermann for Friday nights clash against the Rebels at Ellis Park.
The big Springbok’s inclusion will add some most welcome steel to the Lions second row for the clash against the team currently 1 place below the home side on the combined log.
In is a game the Johannesburg based outfit will be desperate to win before faceing the Cheetahs in their final round robin game which may well decide the Wooden Spoonists of the SA conference, Ackermann will be hoping for a dispaly at least as intense as that which saw the Lions to victory over Gauteng neighbours the Bulls just ove a month ago.
The full media release from the Lions reads:
Lions head coach Johan Ackermann has named his 23-man side to take on the Rebels at Ellis Park on Friday evening.
In the forwards Ackermann has opted largely for consistency, selecting the same front row and loose trio that faced the Bulls before the June Test break.
The only change in the forwards sees Springbok lock Franco van der Merwe return to action, having fully recovered from his ankle injury.
Meanwhile, in the backline, Anthony Volmink will start at left wing, while Deon van Rensburg covers the right wing berth.
The match will kick off at 19:10 SA Time (17:10 GMT).
Lions: 15 Coenie van Wyk, 14 Deon van Rensburg, 13 Stokkies Hanekom, 12 Alwyn Hollenbach, 11 Anthony Volmink, 10 Marnitz Boshoff, 9 Ross Cronje, 8 Warren Whiteley (Captain), 7 Warwick Tecklenburg, 6 Jaco Kriel, 5 Franco van der Merwe, 4 Franco Mostert, 3 Julian Redelinghuys, 2 Robbie Coetzee, 1 Schalk van der Merwe
Replacements: 16 Armand van der Merwe, 17 Jacques van Rooyen / Corne Fourie, 18 Ruan Dreyer, 19 Willie Britz, 20 Derick Minnie, 21 Faf de Klerk, 22 Elton Jantjies, 23 Lionel Mapoe.
@ MacroBull:
Ek is nou nie self ‘n Pienaar “fan” nie, maar ek vind hierdie ding van oorsese spelers wat gekies moet word omdat hulle daar goed vaar, baie irriterend.
In 2010/11 het baie van vandag se anti-Pienaar brigade geroep dat hy vir die Bokke moet kom speel nadat hy daar as Speler van die Jaar aangewys is in hul liga.
@ Nama:#31
Ek wou nog byvoeg: Vandag wil hulle hom nie naby ‘n Bokspan sien ni.
@ Nama:
Jip wat ons nie kan sien of bepaal nie is skielik beter as wat ons sien, ek wonder wie hom so graag in die span wil he ooit twee van sy games gekyk het die jaar?
Ek sal ook nie se ek is n ruan pienaar fan nie, Jano vermaak enige tyd… maar mense is erg krities oor ruan, onnodig so.
25 @ smallies:
Hi there smallies we will welcome you with open arms as a Blue Bulls supporter 🙂 jokes aside eish man feel sorry for you guys seem to be losing so many players this season, but you must stay loyal. You seem to have been unhappy for a while with Drotske as coach there, maybe your team (or ex-team) can look at getting the Kiwi Mark Anscombe on board as he is now out of his job at Ulster. He built quite nicely there and is familiar with working with South African players, quite a lot were there with him as coach – captain Johan Muller, Ruan Pienaar, Robbie Diack, Rob Herring, BJ Botha off the top of my head, while Louis Ludik, Wiehan Herbst and Franco vd Merwe have also signed on for them but obviously not played competitive games under Anscombe yet.
33 @ MacroBull:
Have seen a fair bit of Ruan play in the PRO12 over the last few seasons, although not as much this year, and I am one of those that was and remains a fan of him, still think though he should have stuck to flyhalf, as he has played well for Ulster at scrumhalf but some of his best games for me have been at flyhalf for them plus he is not a shabby kicker, in total 637 points in 80 games. Got 127 points for them in 17 games this season including 3 tries and he wasn’t the chosen kicker in all of the games (looks like at least 3 games this season he didn’t kick), interesting to note on Ulster’s page they have him down as flyhalf on his profile.
@ BrumbiesBoy:
17
😆
@ nortierd:
18
He will get away with it, he always did
😆
@ Nama:
20
Who the hell is ‘Shadow’?
@ Nama:
30
The right place for ‘The Trevor’, me thinking
he must be tired of kicks in his back side by Os?
😆
@ Hondo:#36
How can you not know Shadow? The fastest rugby player to ever come out of Pretoria: Gerhard vd Heever.
@ Hondo:
Watch out for our all black front row next year to crush that overrated sharkbok front row.
Nyakane at TH, Scarra at hooker and Alistair Vermaak at LH.
Yes, I know he plays LH for the Cheetahs but we’ll convert him into a TH and sommer solve the Bokke’s problem wrt depth in that position.
How would you like that?
Users Online
Total 97 users including 0 member, 97 guests, 0 bot online
Most users ever online were 3735, on 31 August 2022 @ 6:23 pm
No Counter as from 31 October 2009: 39,385,697 Page Impressions
_