Boland have it all to do against Lions at Wits
· Citizen
The Boland Cavaliers have a tough task ahead of them, travelling to the Lions without a couple of their backline players for their Currie Cup match on Friday afternoon.
The teams clash in the fifth round (kick-off 3pm) after both suffered defeats last week.
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The Lions fell poorly 31-19 to the Griquas in Kimberley, only mustering a decent performance in the last quarter, while Boland were also obviously the weaker side during their 19-12 defeat to the Sharks in Durban.
Each team now has two wins and two defeats, though the Lions are third on the log, just one point ahead of fifth-placed Boland.
Wits to draw a crowd
With just two regular-season matches to follow, the teams will want to kick into gear and secure the results that will earn them a play-off spot.
Especially so for the Lions, who have the unenviable distraction, or perhaps motivation, of balancing this with preparation for their match against the All Blacks in the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series at Ellis Park next Tuesday evening.
But a different squad and coaching staff are preparing the Lions’ usual United Rugby Championship team for that, barring the omission of one or two Springboks and the banned Asenathi Ntlabakanye.
The Lions and Boland play their match at Wits Rugby Stadium in the only Currie Cup fixture at the venue this season.
It comes after the Lions struggled to sell tickets to games at their crime-affected inner-city stadium.
A one-off game played at the University of Johannesburg Stadium, against the Bulls, drew almost four times the crowd of their previous match at Ellis Park.
Wits is expected to produce a similar atmosphere, as regular fans and students turn up to watch quality rugby.
The crowd support may also have an impact on the Lions, who produced an excellent performance to easily outmuscle the Bulls 42-19 at UJ.
Boland understrength against Lions
Boland will also be without wing Domenic Smit and centre Chris Smit, who contracted colds since the Sharks defeat.
Cornell Engelbrecht replaces Domenic on the right wing, while Sibusiso Sangweni returns from injury to join the bench, which now features regular captain Thurlow Marsh.
Lock Marlyn Williams takes over leadership of the team, and inside centre Jurick Lewis plays his 50th game for Boland.
Boland otherwise retain their halfback combination (Louis Schreuder and Ashlon Davids) as well as their front three (Dayan van der Westhuizen, Joshua Eras and Mthokozisi Gumede).
Head to head, each side got the better of the other at home last season, including the Lions’ 67-19 win in the semi-final at Ellis Park.
Though they’re playing at Wits for the first time, the Lions will want to replicate that last performance against the team from Wellington.
The sides also split the honours at home the previous time they clashed in the tournament before that, in 2016.