Jaco Visagie leads the Lions against Connacht in place of regular captain Francke Horn at Ellis Park on Saturday in round 16 of the Vodacom URC.

The veteran hooker takes over from Horn, who injured his knee in last week’s to Benetton in Johannesburg.

Meanwhile, 21-year-old KES old boy Bronson Mills makes his URC debut for the Pride at No 12 alongside fit-again outside centre Henco van Wyk. The trio of JC Pretorius, Renzo du Plessis and Jarod Cairns make up a dynamic back row, while speedster Richard Kriel makes his return on the right wing.

Flyhalf Lubabalo Dobela is set to make an impact from the bench.

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Manuel Rass, Ruan Venter, Etienne Oosthuizen, Reinhard Nothnagel, Rabz Maxwane and Erich Cronje are all still unavailable for selection due to injury.

The Lions are in 14th place and are mired in a five-match slump – anything other than a bonus point win against Connacht will likely end all hope of sneaking into the playoffs.

Cash van Rooyen’s team will be wary of the Irish tourists who had what would have been a match-winning try scratched off against the Stormers in Cape Town last week.

LIONS – 15 Quan Horn, 14 Richard Kriel, 13 Henco van Wyk, 12 Bronson Mills, 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Kade Wolhuter, 9 Morne van den Berg, 8 Jarod Cairns, 7 Renzo du Plessis, 6 JC Pretorius, 5 Ruan Delport, 4 Ruben Schoeman, 3 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 2 Jaco Visagie (c), 1 Morgan Naude.
Bench: 16 PJ Botha, 17 SJ Kotze, 18 RF Schoeman, 19 Darrien Landsberg, 20 Izan Esterhuizen, 21 Nico Steyn, 22 Lubabalo Dobela, 23 Rynhardt Jonker.

Photo: Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images