Lions v Highlanders: Super Rugby semi-final preview
By Keith Moore
Last Updated: 30/07/16 1:51pm
The Lions will be without influential captain Warren Whiteley when they face the Highlanders in the Super Rugby semi-finals on Saturday, live on Sky Sports 4 HD from 1.45pm.
Whiteley failed to recover from a calf problem picked up in his side's 42-25 quarter-final victory over the Crusaders last weekend, and his loss is a blow for coach Johann Ackermann both in terms of his work with the ball and his leadership qualities.
The captain's armband moves to flank Jaco Kriel with the coach's son, Ruan Ackermann, taking over at the back of the scrum. That is the only change to the starting from the side that thumped the Crusaders, though loose forward Steph de Witt and scrum-half Dillon Smit come onto the bench.
The Lions are seeking a first ever final appearance in Super Rugby having topped the combined African conference this season.
They have never lost to the defending champion Highlanders at Ellis Park in four previous matches, their last clash at the venue a 28-23 victory in 2015. The teams have met in New Zealand already this season with the Highlanders winning 34-15 in March, but the visitors believe the task will be tougher this Saturday.
"They've been a consistently good team," Highlanders coach Jamie Joseph said. "We had a good game against the Lions but since they've been back in South Africa they've just gone from strength to strength.
"Unlike a lot of the South African teams they play a running game of football. They can maul, they can scrum so they've got a total game and I guess that's one of the big reasons why they're still here at this stage of the competition."
Lions assistant coach Swys de Bruin agreed with Joseph that the Lions have improved since the third-round loss in Dunedin.
"I showed the guys a few clips of when we played them and they couldn't believe the basic mistakes we made," De Bruin said. "We were not good at a few fundamentals, we didn't protect our ball well, we gave away some bad turnovers, we didn't pick our running lines well. From that point of view we've improved a lot."
Highlanders scrum-half Aaron Smith believes part of the secret to the Lions success is that they play like New Zealanders.
"They play a real positive game of footy, they're very similar to New Zealand teams," Smith said.
"One thing you have to respect about the Lions is they play their footy for the full 80. I've seen a lot of footage of them just quick-tapping in the 76th minute, they don't stop until the whistle goes."
Joseph has made a few changes to his forward pack, with flanker James Lentjes coming in for Shane Christie and second rower Alex Ainley replacing Luke Whitelock, who moves to No 8. The starting backline from the quarter-final win over the Brumbies remains intact.
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, 1 Dylan Smith, 2 Malcolm Marx, 3 Julian Redelinghuys, 4 Andries Ferreira, 5 Franco Mostert, 6 Jaco Kriel (c), 7 Warwick Tecklenburg, 8 Ruan Ackermann.
Replacements: 16 Akker van der Merwe, 17 Corné Fourie, 18 Jacques van Rooyen, 19 Lourens Erasmus, 20 Steph de Witt, 21 Dillon Smit, 22 Howard Mnisi, 23 Jaco van der Walt.
Highlanders: 15 Ben Smith (c), 14 Waisake Naholo, 13 Matt Faddes, 12 Malakai Fekitoa, 11 Patrick Osborne, 10 Lima Sopoaga, 9 Aaron Smith, 1 Daniel Lienert-Brown, 2 Ash Dixon, 3 Josh Hohneck, 4 Alex Ainley, 5 Tom Franklin, 6 Elliot Dixon, 7 James Lentjes, 8 Luke Whitelock.
Replacements: 16 Greg Pleasants-Tate, 17 Aki Seiuli, 18 Ross Geldenhuys, 19 Joe Wheeler, 20 Liam Squire, 21 Dan Pryor, 22 Te Aihe Toma, 23 Marty Banks.
Watch Lions v Highlanders live on Sky Sports 4 HD on Saturday from 1.45pm. Catch the match for £6.99 on NOW TV. No contract.