{"id":57575,"date":"2023-12-05T16:17:26","date_gmt":"2023-12-05T16:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lions-bank-on-cubs-as-frontline-stars-spared-trip-to-struggling-perpignan"},"modified":"2023-12-05T16:30:13","modified_gmt":"2023-12-05T16:30:13","slug":"lions-bank-on-cubs-as-frontline-stars-spared-trip-to-struggling-perpignan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lions-bank-on-cubs-as-frontline-stars-spared-trip-to-struggling-perpignan","title":{"rendered":"Lions bank on cubs as frontline stars spared trip to struggling Perpignan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>As expected, Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen opted to rotate his squad for his team’s away clash in the Challenge Cup against Perpignan on Sunday.<\/p>\n

<\/a>The bulk of the squad that did duty against the Dragons will not make the trip to the southernmost tip of mainland France.Perpignan has been going south in a figurative sense too in the Top14, and their 13th position on the points table perhaps helped the Lions arrive at the decision to rest their frontline players.<\/p>\n

Van Rooyen has assembled 26 players, with hooker Jaco Visagie named captain for Sunday’s game. Their tour group includes veteran fullback Andries Coetzee, who is the most experienced player in the backline, while Gianni Lombard and Jordan Hendrikse cracked the nod as flyhalves.<\/p>\n

Visagie and Corne Fourie are the most experienced players up front.\u201cRotation was always part of the plan for this trip to France,\u201d said Van Rooyen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the opportunity to tap into the squad we currently have for the next two weeks of Challenge Cup fixtures both away and home.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo get the performance we want and to potentially win both games [Perpignan and Newcastle Falcons], we will rely on the players at our disposal as we have huge confidence in using the broader squad. We’ve prepared and trained accordingly for the past two, three weeks so we’ll be ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Falcons are also heading in the wrong direction. They have lost eight matches in a row in the Premiership, but more disturbingly, the club is in financial dire straights.<\/p>\n

The Lions’ first two matches are perhaps their most forgiving in the pool stages.<\/p>\n

The other teams in pool 2 of the competition are the Ospreys and Benetton Treviso, who are flying high in the United Rugby Championship (URC).<\/p>\n

The Challenge Cup boasts a new format for this season. It still features 18 teams with eight emerging from the URC, six from the Top 14, two from the Premiership and two invited clubs (the Cheetahs and Black Lion from Georgia).<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The guiding principles of the draw limits the number of Top 14 teams to two per pool, while the two Premiership clubs have to be in different pools. In addition, teams from the same shield in the URC cannot be in the same pool and the same goes for the two invited clubs.<\/p>\n

The top four teams from the three pools will qualify for the knock-out phase and will be joined in the knockout last 16 by four teams from the Champions Cup.<\/p>\n

The final is scheduled for the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on May 24 next year.<\/p>\n

Backs \u2014 Andries Coetzee, Erich Cronje, Zander du Plessis, Boldwin Hansen, Jordan Hendrikse, Rynhardt Jonker, Gianni Lombard, Rabz Maxwane, Johan Mulder, Stean Pienaar, Nico Steyn.<\/p>\n

Forwards \u2014 Morne Brandon, Izan Esterhuizen, Corne Fourie, Travis Gordon, Morgan Naude, Etienne Oosthuizen, Heiko Pohlmann, JC Pretorius, Raynard Roets, Sibusiso Sangweni, Hanru Sirgel, Ruan Smith, Ruhan Straeuli, Conrad van Vuuren, Jaco Visagie.<\/p>\n

Lions Challenge Cup pool fixtures:<\/p>\n

December 10: vs Perpignan (A)<\/p>\n

December 16: vs Newcastle Falcons (H)<\/p>\n

January 13: vs Lions (A)<\/p>\n

January 21: vs Ospreys (H)<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. As expected, Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen opted to rotate his squad for his team’s away clash in the Challenge Cup against Perpignan on Sunday. The bulk of the squad that did duty against the Dragons will not make the trip to the southernmost tip of mainland France.Perpignan has been going south […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":57574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-57575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nLions bank on cubs as frontline stars spared trip to struggling Perpignan - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As expected, Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen opted to rotate his squad for his team's away clash in the Challenge Cup agains ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lions-bank-on-cubs-as-frontline-stars-spared-trip-to-struggling-perpignan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lions bank on cubs as frontline stars spared trip to struggling Perpignan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As expected, Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen opted to rotate his squad for his team's away clash in the Challenge Cup agains ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lions-bank-on-cubs-as-frontline-stars-spared-trip-to-struggling-perpignan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-12-05T16:17:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-05T16:30:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/12\/sm_1701781170.564198.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"644\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"392\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lions-bank-on-cubs-as-frontline-stars-spared-trip-to-struggling-perpignan#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lions-bank-on-cubs-as-frontline-stars-spared-trip-to-struggling-perpignan\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Lions bank on cubs as frontline stars spared trip to struggling Perpignan\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-05T16:17:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-05T16:30:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lions-bank-on-cubs-as-frontline-stars-spared-trip-to-struggling-perpignan\"},\"wordCount\":536,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lions-bank-on-cubs-as-frontline-stars-spared-trip-to-struggling-perpignan#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/12\/sm_1701781170.564198.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lions-bank-on-cubs-as-frontline-stars-spared-trip-to-struggling-perpignan#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lions-bank-on-cubs-as-frontline-stars-spared-trip-to-struggling-perpignan\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lions-bank-on-cubs-as-frontline-stars-spared-trip-to-struggling-perpignan\",\"name\":\"Lions bank on cubs as frontline stars spared trip to struggling Perpignan - 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