Disappointed with his team's outing at Ellis Park last week, Van Rooyen is adamant that his team has the ability to up the ante against their neighbours from across the Jukskei.

Springbok Jaco Kriel takes over the captaincy reigns from Burger Odendaal, who suffered a head injury last Saturday. Tiaan Swanepoel gets his chance at pivot, with centre Matt More being afforded a starting berth after touring with the squad in September last year. Exciting prospects PJ Steenkamp and Quan Horn are also in line to make their VURC debuts off the replacements bench.

“Both players and management had difficult conversations post the Bulls' fixture and we felt that a better showing was required if we wanted to be competitive this week,” said Van Rooyen.

“We felt our scrums and mauls were a highlight for us against the Bulls so it's something we would like to capitalise on come Saturday.

“It's an opportunity once again for others to step up and show us what they can do on a big stage. We spoke last week about changes and how we as a group pride ourselves in creating these kinds of opportunities for players.”

This game at Loftus Versfeld kicks off at 15:00.

Lions - 15 Divan Rossouw, 14 Stean Pienaar, 13 Manuel Rass, 12 Matt More, 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Tiaan Swanepoel, 9 Andre Warner, 8 Francke Horn, 7 Emmanuel Tshituka, 6 Jaco Kriel (captain), 5 Ruben Schoeman, 4 Ruhan Straeuli, 3 Carlu Sadie, 2 PJ Botha, 1 Sti Sithole.

Replacements - 16 Morné Brandon, 17 Morgan Naude, 18 Ruan Dreyer, 19 Ruan Venter, 20 PJ Steenkamp, 21 Morné van den Berg, 22 EW Viljoen, 23 Quan Horn.