Warren Whiteley
Inspirational Emirates Lions captain Warren Whiteley has recovered from the calf strain that kept him out of the Super Rugby semifinal last week, and returns to lead the team in the final against the Hurricanes in Wellington New Zealand on Saturday.
Ruan Ackermann drops to the bench, and is joined by Lourens Erasmus and Ross Cronjé.
Herewith the Lions’ media statement.
Emirates Lions vs Hurricanes: 6 August 2016 (09:35 SA Time)
Warren Whiteley will lead the Emirates Lions against the Hurricanes in Wellington on Saturday in their 1st ever Final of Vodacom Super Rugby.
Whiteley is back in the starting line-up while Ruan Ackermann and Lourens Erasmus have been included on the bench, together with Ross Cronjé.
Kick-off is at 09:35 SA time on Saturday morning.
Emirates Lions: 15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Ruan Combrinck, 13 Lionel Mapoe, 12 Rohan Janse van Rensburg, 11 Courtnall Skosan, 10 Elton Jantjies, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Warren Whiteley (Captain), 7 Warwick Tecklenburg, 6 Jaco Kriel, 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Andries Ferreira, 3 Julian Redelinghuys, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Dylon Smith
Replacements: 16 Akker van der Merwe, 17 Corné Fourie, 18 Jacques van Rooyen, 19 Lourens Erasmus, 20 Ruan Ackermann, 21 Ross Cronjé, 22 Howard Mnisi, 23 Jaco van der Walt.
Date: Saturday 6 August 2016
Venue: Westpac Stadium, Wellington
Kick-Off: 09:35 SA Time (19:35 NZ Time, 07:35 GMT)
Referee: Glen Jackson (New Zealand)
Assistant Referees: Angus Gardner (Australia), Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand)
TMO: Ben Skeen (New Zealand)
Good news for the Lions.
‘Canes sweating on a few injuries which include their captain Dane Coles.
If he were to miss the game it would be a bit of a blow for the home team who go into the game as massive favourites in most bookmakers books.
Hurricanes team as announced:
15 James Marshall, 14 Cory Jane, 13 Matt Proctor, 12 Willis Halaholo, 11 Jason Woodward, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 TJ Perenara (c), 8 Victor Vito, 7 Ardie Savea, 6 Brad Shields, 5 Michael Fatialofa, 4 Vaea Fifita, 3 Ben May, 2 Dane Coles (c)/Ricky Riccitelli, 1 Loni Uhila
Reserves: 16 Ricky Riccitelli/Leni Apisai, 17 Chris Eves, 18 Reggie Goodes/Mike Kainga, 19 Mark Abbott, 20 Tony Lamborn, 21 Jamison Gibson Park, 22 Vince Aso, 23 Julian Savea.
Glad to see WW starting, as well as Ross Cronje.
“No team has ever crossed the Indian Ocean and won a play-off game.”
Jacques vd Westhuyzen (sp?) – The Star – yesterday.
Will this unique statistic change this weekend?
@ BrumbiesBoy:
This Lions team has the best chance of any SAFFER side to do it. They have broken the mould over the last 3 years in the way SA rugby is played. Traditionally it was always the boys from Cape Town that had the flair, then the Cheetahs. The rest always relied on the 10 man game. The Lions have shown that SA does have the talent and decision making ability to play what’s in front of them.
GO LIONS!!! All the best for the final, would be a nice end to the Super Rugby season for their fans if they can lift the trophy.
So who from the Lions is going to target TJ, wind him up early to try and get a ‘reaction’ from him or at least unsettle him and disrupt the distribution of good ball to the general Barrett and the rest of the backline. Would think the Lions management have had a word in the ear of the refs to alert them to TJ’s luckiness at being there after his wee kick out last week and try get them to watch him very closely in this game. It would be justice having his thuggery being overlooked last week if he were to spend some time on the sideline during the final…
4 @ Lion4ever:
Hi everybody, I apologize that the DOMAIN and WEBSITE was down for a day or so… I had bloody forgotten to pay my DOMAIN Registration Renewal and only paid the freegin Hosting part… so technically the Domain Name had expired for a couple of hours and it took quite some time after renewal for the renewed staus to propagate everywhere in the world.
It was a big slip-up!!
@ Bullscot:
Maybe Faf or Tecklenberg. Unsettle him, put a bit of pressure on and make sure he is rattled.
8 @ grootblousmile:
Not to worry, these things start happening when you reach your age…
10 @ BrumbiesBoy:
They do… they do!
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