The Emirates Lions have won five out of their seven matches to date, with defeats against the Highlanders in Round 3 and the Crusaders in Round 6. They picked up away victories against the Sunwolves, Chiefs and Sharks and two at home against the Cheetahs and Stormers.

In their last match they picked up an impressive win against the South African Group leaders, the DHL Stormers at Emirates Airline Park. The home side scored two tries to the visitors’ one, but it was however the boot of flyhalf Elton Jantjies who kicked 19 points that secured the win in the end. He added a penalty in the seventy forth minute and slotted a drop goal in the seventy seventh minute to take the game away from the visitors, 29 – 22.

After a hard fought 33 – 28 victory against the Sunwolves three weeks ago, the Southern Kings hosted the Vodacom Bulls a fortnight ago after they enjoyed a bye last weekend.

The home side can count themselves unlucky as they attacked eight minutes into extra time at the end of the first half. Jurgen Visser was eventually held up over the Lions tryline as the half finally ended 17 – 6 to the visitors. The Southern Kings failed to add to Louis Fouche’s two first half penalties as the Bulls scored a further three tries to go with the three from the first half as they secured a 38 – 6 bonus point win.

The home side will have to try and disrupt the Lions up front where they tend to build a platform for their dangerous backs.

Both sides are strong in the lineout with Lions winning 71 on their own throw compared to the Southern Kings’ 75, both sides have also stolen 6 from the opposition. JC Astle and Steven Sykes are the go-to-men for the homeside with 28 and 22 respectively. Astle and Jacques Engelbrecht have also stolen two each on the opposition throw. Andries Ferreira has taken 25 of their own lineout ball with Warren Whiteley stealing 3 on the opposition’s throw.

The Lions have had 70 clean breaks with their outside backs Ruan Combrinck and Lionel Mapoe the most dangerous with 10 each. For the Southern Kings Malcolm Jaer has made the most clean breaks with 6 followed by Shane Gates and Edgar Marutlulle with 5 each.

Combrinck and Mapoe have also beaten the most defenders for the visitors with 19 and 17 respectively while Marutlulle has beaten the most for the home side, 11.

Combrinck has also ran the most meters for the Lions, 413, while Shane Gates has done the hard yards for the Southern Kings, 232, followed by Marutlulle with 218.

Elton Jantjies is the top points scorer for the Lions on 99 and Mapoe the top try scorer with 3. Fouche tops the points scorers list for the Southern Kings on 57 and Marutlulle the tries list with 3.

Kick-off is at 17:05.

Southern Kings:

15 Malcolm Jaer 14 Luzuko Vulindlu 13 Lukhanyo Am 12 Shane Gates 11 JP du Plessis 10 Louis Fouche 9 James Hall 8 CJ Velleman 7 Thembelani Bholi 6 Chris Cloete 5 Steven Sykes (c) 4 Schalk Oelofse 3 Jacobie Adriaanse 2 Martin Ferreira 1 Schalk Ferreira

Reserves:

16 Martin Bezuidenhoudt 17 Tom Botha 18 Justin Ackerman 19 JC Astle 20 Jacques Engelbrecht 21 Ntando Kebe 22 Stefan Watermeyer 23 Leighton Eksteen

Emirates Lions:

15 Jaco van der Walt 14 Ruan Combrinck 13 Lionel Mapoe 12 Howard Mnisi 11 Courtnal Skosan 10 Elton Jantjies 9 Faf de Klerk 8 Warren Whiteley (c) 7 Warwick Ticklenburg 6 Cyle Brink 5 Franco Mostert 4 Andries Ferreira 3 Ruan Dreyer 2 Armand van der Merwe 1 Corne Fourie

Reserve:

16 Romone Samuels 17 Dylan Smith 18 Jacques van Rooyen 19 Ruan Ackermann 20 Jaco Kriel 21 Ross Cronje 22 JW Bell 23 Rohan Janse van Rensburg