The Lions are the first of the South African sides in European Challenge Cup Round of 16 action this weekend when they visit Edinburgh on Friday.

 

 

 

Edinburgh v Lions, Friday 4^th April, Edinburgh, KO 21:00 (South African time)

 

Referee: Ludovic Cayre (France)
Assistant Referees: Evan Urruzmendi (France) & Vincent Blasco Baque (France)
TMO: Denis Grenouillet (France)

 

Weather Forecast - Edinburgh

 

 

Edinburgh:

 

In the pool stage Edinburgh recovered from losing their opening match away to Gloucester (15-10) to reel off 3 straight wins. They thrashed Aviron Bayonnaise (52-12) and beat Black Lions (36-15) in home fixtures either side of a 29-25 win away to RC Vannes.

 

In the URC Edinburgh are holding on to 8^th position on a congested maid table log with a record of 6 wins and 8 defeats. They were thumped 55-21 by the Lions in Round 3 of that competition in Johannesburg. Last time out they reeled of a comfortable home win over the Dragons (38-5).

 

Lions:

 

The Lions came through the pool stage with 2 wins and 2 draws. They lost both their away fixtures, away to the Ospreys (3014) and at Montpellier (28-5) but in Johannesburg they came out on to against Section Paloise (43-35) and they put the Dragons away (60-10)

 

In the URC the Lions have slipped down to 14^th position, 6 points behind their opponents here who hold the last of the play off spots. The Lions have remained in Europe over the last few weeks where URC results saw them beaten at Cardiff (20-17) and most recently at Glasgow Warriors (42-0)

 

Team News

 

Edinburgh: 15 Wes Goosen, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Matt Currie, 12 James Lang, 11, Ross McCann, 10 Ross Thompson, 9 Ben Vellacott (c), 1 Pierre Schoeman, 2 Dave Cherry, 3, Paul Hill, 4 Sam Skinner, 5 Grant Gilchrist (c), 6 Jamie Ritchie, 7 Hamish Watson, 8 Magnus Bradbury,

Replacements: 16 Ewan Ashman, 17 Boan Venter, 18 Javan Sebastian, 19 Glen Young, 20 Freddy Douglas, 21 Ali Price, 22 Cammy Scott, 23 Jack Brown

 

Lions: 15 Quan Horn 14 Richard Kriel 13 Manuel Rass 12 Rynhardt Jonker 11 Edwill van der Merwe 10 Gianni Lombard 9 Morné van den Berg 8 Francke Horn (captain) 7 Ruan Venter 6 Jarod Cairns 5 Darrien Landsberg 4 Ruben Schoeman 3 Asenathi Ntlabakanye 2 Franco Marais 1 SJ Kotze.

Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie 17 Juan Schoeman 18 RF Schoeman 19 Izan Esterhuizen 20 Sibabalo Qoma 21 Nico Steyn 22 JC Pretorius 23 Marius Louw

 

 

The Betting

 

Average early show, to be updated

 

Edinburgh -14.5 points at 9/10

Lions +14.5 points at 9/10

 

Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.

 

Betting Angle

 

to follow

 

Bet: To follow

 

Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.

 

 

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