The clash of the weekend in round two of Super Rugby Unlocked is the heavyweight bout between the Stormers and the Lions from Newlands.
Stormers vs Lions: Super Rugby Unlocked preview
The Lions and the Stormers met in the Super Fan Saturday exhibition warm-up with the Cape side coming out on top at Loftus in an entertaining and reasonably close battle.
After a bye in the opening round the Stormers will be eager to hit the ground running and puts some log points on the board. The Lions earned a losing bonus point in round one which has left them fourth on the log coming into the weekend. The Lions can climb as high as second. The Cheetahs top the log after beating the Bulls on Friday night.
Livewire Lions scrumhalf Morne van den Berg (Lions) won two turnovers in Round 1 of Super Rugby Unlocked; he was one of two backs to win more than one in the round and earned himself a starting berth.
Lions Centre EW Viljjoen made round high 13 carries on the opening weekend of Super Rugby Unlocked; in fact, the Lions had the most players make 10+ carries of any side in Round 1 (Viljoen – 13 , Willem Alberts – 10 and Vincent Tshituka – 10).
Alberts misses out this week after coming into close contact with a person infected with COVID-19 with young Ruben Schoeman coming into the lineup.
Coach John Dobson has included seven Springboks in the Stormers starting line-up for their opening encounter.
There are just two changes to the starting line-up that did duty in the 34-21 victory against the Lions on Super Fan Saturday at Loftus Versfeld at the start of the month. Fit-again wing Sergeal Petersen replaces the injured Seabelo Senatla, while Bok Bongi Mbonambi starts at hooker with fellow international Scarra Ntubeni among the replacements.
Stormers vs Lions: Previous Super Rugby meetings
1996-04-13 Lio 23 – 26 Sto
2007-04-07 Sto 30 – 8 Lio
2008-05-17 Lio 13 – 22 Sto
2009-03-14 Sto 56 – 18 Lio
2010-02-13 Lio 13 – 26 Sto
2011-02-26 Sto 19 – 16 Lio
2011-04-16 Lio 19 – 33 Sto
2012-03-24 Lio 19 – 24 Sto
2012-06-30 Sto 27 – 17 Lio
2014-02-22 Lio 34 – 10 Sto
2014-04-19 Sto 18 – 3 Lio
2015-02-28 Lio 19 – 22 Sto
2015-06-06 Sto 19 – 19 Lio
2016-04-16 Lio 29 – 22 Sto
2017-04-15 Sto 16 – 29 Lio
2018-04-07 Lio 52 – 31 Sto
2018-05-26 Sto 23 – 26 Lio
2019-02-23 Sto 19 – 17 Lio
2019-06-01 Lio 41 – 22 Sto
2020-02-15 Lio 30 – 33 Sto
Super Rugby Unlocked: Stormers vs Lions – Kick-off time and where to watch
Date: Saturday 17 October
Time: 19h00
Venue: DHL Newlands, Cape Town
Referee: Rasta Rasivhenge
Assistant Referees: Egon Seconds, Aimee Barrett-Theron
Television Match Official: Joey Klaaste-Salmans
TV: SuperSport Grandstand and Rugby
Stormers vs Lions: teams
Stormers
15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Sergeal Petersen, 13 Dan du Plessis, 12 Rikus Pretorius, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Damian Willemse, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Juarno Augustus, 7 Ernst van Rhyn, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 JD Schickerling, 4 Salmaan Moerat, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Steven Kitshoff. Replacements: 16 Scarra Ntubeni, 17 Leon Lyons, 18 Neethling Fouche, 19 Chris van Zyl, 20 Nama Xaba, 21 Paul de Wet, 22 Michal Haznar, 23 Tim Swiel.
Lions
15 EW Viljoen; 14 Jamba Ulengo, 13 Burger Odendaal, 12 Dan Kriel, 11 Rabz Maxwane; 10 Elton Jantjies (captain), 9 Morné van den Berg; 8 Len Massyn, 7 Vincent Tshituka, 6 Jaco Kriel, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Willem Alberts, 3 Carlu Sadie, 2 Jaco Visagie, 1 Sti Sithole. Replacements (from): Jan-Henning Campher, Dylan Smith, Wiehahn Herbst, Wilhelm van der Sluys, MJ Pelser, Hacjivah Dayimani, Ross Cronjé, Gianni Lombard, Wandisile Simelane, Ruan Dreyer.
Super Rugby Unlocked standings
