Winning the forward battle will be vital

BOTH the Lions and the Sharks love to play a game based on high tempo and intuitive counter- attack from the backs but – as any old rugby warrior will tell you – the flashy stuff at the back seldom happens if your set- pieces are a mess.

Tonight’s match will be no different and the respective front rows know that the job begins with them.

And this match- up between the big fellows will be an intriguing one given that both have been under serious overhaul this year after stuttering beginnings way back in February.

In the case of the Sharks, they have stuck to the same props that started Super Rugby while the Lions went- a- hunting for younger, beefier bets, while both front rows are fielding new hookers.

For the Sharks, one of their stand- out performers earlier this year – Kerron van Vuuren – tore a pectoral muscle in training and is a long- term casualty while the Lions have bought Bulls hooker Jaco Visagie.

Van Vuuren is replaced by exciting 21- year- old Dylan Richardson, who played hooker off the bench for the Gold team last week.

Richardson has played most of his rugby on the flank but has on occasion switched to hooker and he will be in for a thorough examination from 28- year- old Visagie, who until a few months ago had been at the Bulls for seven years.

The Lions have jettisoned former Sharks stalwart Jannie du Plessis, who was off the pace of the game earlier this year, and they are anchoring their scrum with 23- year- old former Stormer Carlu Sadie, who last year was a World Cup joker with Stade Francais.

The tighthead cover on the bench is Ruan Dreyer, who returned to the Lions in lockdown after two years with English club Gloucester, where he had followed former coach Johan Ackermann.

The fact that Dreyer is not starting tonight probably has a lot to do with him finishing second best in a battle with Sharks loosehead Ox Nche in last week’s Springbok Showdown, and a repeat is not being risked.

It was interesting to hear Sharks coach Sean Everitt comment on how well Nche – and also Sharks tighthead – Thomas du Toit performed in the Showdown.

They were two of the better front row performers on the day.

“I think their form actually started in Super Rugby way back in February after we had had a few scrum issues early in the year,” Everitt said.

“I recall the media were critical of our set- piece at that time.

“We sorted it out and the scrum went from strength to strength,” the coach continued. “Then in the friendly against the Bulls, I thought both of them stood up really well in the scrums, through to the Showdown.

“The game is all about confidence, and with Ox getting one over Ruan Dreyer at the weekend, it has added spice to this game.”

The Lions’ starting loosehead is former Durban schoolboy Sti Sithole, who went to Western Province post- school and then journeyed to the Lions via a period at the Southern Kings.

All in all, it should be an intriguing