Wilhelm van der Sluys has been named in their starting XV for the clash against the log-leaders. He replaces the Springbok Marvin Orie who has joined the national team in New Zealand as they prepare for their important Rugby Championship Test against Argentina.

On the bench, Jan-Henning Campher comes in as the replacement hooker in the place of PJ Botha. The second change among the replacements sees Reinhard Nothnagel coming in for Van der Sluys.

Like the Cheetahs, the Lions are also unbeaten after two games, however, against both the Pumas and Western Province they had to dig deep to grind to a win. The Free State in their turn have been in top-form and recorded a convincing 43-27 win over the Blue Bulls at Loftus Versfeld before thumping the Griquas 68-14 in Bloemfontein last week.

This sees the Cheetahs lead the standings with a points difference of 70 points. The Lions currently occupy the third spot in the table.

The Cheetahs will name their team for the clash on Thursday afternoon.

Friday’s evening clash between the Free State Cheetahs and Golden Lions at the Toyota Stadium kicks off at 19:15.

Golden Lions – 15 Tyrone Green, 14 Madosh Tambwe, 13 Wandisile Simelane, 12 Jan-Louis la Grange, 11 Stean Pienaar, 10 Shaun Reynolds, 9 Ross Cronje (captain), 8 Hacjivah Dayimani, 7 Vincent Tshituka, 6 Marnus Schoeman, 5 Wilhelm van der Sluys, 4 Ruben Schoeman, 3 Johannes Jonker, 2 Pieter Jansen, 1 Sti Sithole.

 Replacements - 16 Jan-Henning Campher, 17 Leo Kruger, 18 Jacobie Adriaanse, 19 Reinhard Nothnagel, 20 James Venter, 21 Len Massyn, 22 Dillon Smit, 23 Manuel Rass.

@MorganPiek OFM Sport