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Lions vs Sunwolves: Super Rugby live scores, blog

1st July, 2017
Lions
15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Ruan Combrinck, 13 Lionel Mapoe, 12 Harold Vorster, 11 Courtnall Skosan, 10 Elton Jantjies, 9 Ross Cronjé, 8 Ruan Ackermann, 7 Albertus Smith, 6 Jaco Kriel (captain), 5 Francois Mostert, 4 Andries Ferreira, 3 Ruan Dreyer, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Jacques van Rooyen.

Replacements: 16 Armand van der Merwe, 17 Corné Fourie, 18 Johannes Jonker, 19 Lourens Erasmus, 20 Cyle Brink, 21 Francois de Klerk, 22 Jacques Nel, 23 Sylvian Mahuza.

Sunwolves
15 Yasutaka Sasakura, 14 Takaaki Nakazuru, 13 Ryohei Yamanaka, 12 Derek Carpenter, 11 Teruya Goto, 10 Jumpei Ogura, 9 Keisuke Uchida, 8 Willem Britz (captain), 7 Shokei Kin, 6 Yoshitaka Tokunaga, 5 Kotaro Yatabe, 4 Sam Wykes, 3 Yasuo Yamaji, 2 Atsushi Sakate, 1 Matasaka Mikami.

Replacements: 16 Takeshi Hino, 17 Koki Yamamoto, 18 Takuma Asahara, 19 Uwe Helu, 20 Malgene Ilaua, 21 Kaito Shigeno, 22 Rikiya Matshuda, 23 Kotaro Mathushima.
Can the Lions finally claim their elusive first Super Rugby championship? (AAP Image/Julian Smith)
Roar Guru
1st July, 2017
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1224 Reads

The African conference resumes with Super Rugby as we enter the last few games of round–robin. The last fixture of the weekend sees the Lions host the Sunwolves at Emirates Park, Johannesburg. Join us at The Roar for live updates and a blog at 1:15am AEST.

The Sunwolves, who are in search of their first win away from home, have a mammoth task of beating a very strong Lions side.

Coach Filo Tiatia has rung in 12 changes to the side the lost 47-7 to the Cheetahs at the end of May. The side will likely be led by South African Willie Britz who starts at No.8.

The Lions will be quite familiar with the position their sitting in, currently placed second in the combined log.

They will look to rectify the blunder they committed in 2016 by finishing top of the log in the regular 2017 season.

The home side will be without their captain and Springbok captain, Warren Whitely, who suffered an injury during the Springboks’ successful June Test Series against France.

They will be led by Springbok flanker Jaco Kriel who looked impressive for the Boks, after returning from injury.

Despite being without their regular captain, the Lions still boast nine Springboks in the starting XV.

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Ross Cronje returns from concussion to partner up with fellow Bok Elton Jantjies.

The likes of Malcom Marx, Franco Mostert and Kwagga Smith will look to dominate upfront in the forward pack, while the likely back row comprising of Courtnall Skosan, Andries Coetzee and Ruan Combrinck will be too much to handle on attack.

Prediction
The Lions are on a hot home winning streak having won their last 12 games on home turf.

There is no doubt that the Lions are to walk away as victors, but it is a case of by how much.

They should run away with it by 30 points or more.

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