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Lions aim to get back in gear

Johannesburg - After their most disappointing performance of the season thus far, the Lions will be looking to get their campaign back on track when they travel to Pretoria on Saturday where they’ll face the Bulls.

“We have now got an opportunity to get back on the horse and be a lot more ambitious and committed in our approach,” Lions coach John Mitchell said on Thursday.

Mitchell named his team on Thursday and made no less than five changes as well as three positional switches to the side that lost 27-15 to the Western Force.

His decision to include two specialist fetchers in his starting line-up forms part of the team’s goal to be more ambitious than they were against the Western Force last week.

“If we have to defend, clearly the two fetchers will be an advantage to us, but we thought we were far too conservative last week and we want to be more ambitious in the way that we play,” said Mitchell.

He did, however, indicate that his inclusion of Cobus Grobbelaar ahead of Josh Strauss - who was demoted to the bench - at flank had nothing to do with how the Bulls’ loose-forwards are performing.

“It is more about how we want to play than worrying about the ball that they offer us.”

The Lions also welcomed centre Doppies la Grange back from injury which means that Waylon Murray will return to his preferred outside-centre position.

Michael Killian has also been moved from wing to fullback with Deon van Rensburg brought in to beef up the team’s defence out wide.

Mitchell explained that the inclusion of Springbok veteran Andre Pretorius ahead of Burton Francis as was done to give the latter more time on the field.

“Some players - like Francis - were needing some much needed game time at Vodacom Cup level while others didn’t perform to my satisfaction when coming on from the bench.”

Only Michael Rhodes survived the chop amongst the replacements, which means prop Jacobie Adriaanse and hooker Edgar Marutlulle can make their Super Rugby debuts if called upon.

The rest of the bench consists of players that were in the run-on side last week.

Lions skipper Franco van der Merwe highlighted that winning at Loftus Versfeld will not be an easy task, but added that his men will go there with confidence.

“It will be important for us to do what we want to do on the weekend and we need to be ambitious and we can’t focus too much on the Bulls,” said Van der Merwe.

“They are a champion side and they have shown in the past that they can come back and that they can beat any team so it is going to be tough, but we know what to expect.”

Mitchell made it clear that he wants his charges to play at a higher tempo and added that he is not expecting the Bulls to change what has worked for them for so long.

“The blueprint of the Bulls is pretty much the same and we are expecting a lot of kick contestable behind the line,” said Mitchell.

“They’ll be looking to get a bit of change out of that and they will be playing for field position.”
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