The Lions made a few changes to their side to strike a balance in fielding and resting key players as they hunt a quarter-final place in the Challenge Cup, and chase a spot in the top eight in the United Rugby Championship.
For now, all the focus will be on beating Edinburgh at the Hive Stadium (9pm kick-off) in the Scottish capital, and putting on a better performance than what was the case last weekend in Glasgow.
Head coach Ivan van Rooyen selected an exciting starting XV on Thursday for the round of 16 clash in the EPCR competition.
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The inclusion of Morné van den Berg at scrumhalf should provide the Johannesburg outfit with some attacking impetus.
Not that his replacement Nico Steyn did not do well in his injury-enforced absence, but Van den Berg brings a different dimension to the Lions’ attack.
If the conditions don’t allow the visitors to play their running brand of rugby, the tactical kicking at scrumhalf and flyhalf, and from fullback Quan Horn, will have to be on point.
Van den Berg will resume his halfback partnership with Gianni Lombard as the Lions’ two game drivers.
Rynhardt Jonker taking over from the experienced Marius Louw at inside centre comes as a surprise, but it ties in with the team wanting to strike that balance in giving the players game-time over the next few weeks.
Upfront, fetcher Jarod Cairns comes in for JC Pretorius, Franco Marais is the starting hooker and loosehead SJ Kotze has been given a chance to state his case in place of Juan Schoeman.
Schoeman will come off the bench and could face his brother Pierre, who plays for Edinburgh.
Jaque Fourie, the Lions’ defence coach, said earlier in the week that they must find that middle ground when it comes to the players’ minutes on the field.
“When you get to knockouts, you want to play your best teams,” he said.
“We also want to get that continuity (in selection) going. We have chatted about that quite a bit, because we are going into the business end of the tournaments.
“We want to win (in the knockouts), but we also want to end in the top eight of the URC.
“There were lengthy discussions (on resting players), but we have sorted it out.
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“We are prepared to play for six weeks straight if it comes down to that. The more the team can play together, the better it will be for us and them.”
Looking at their peculiar position in both competitions, it’s unsurprising that the Lions selected their best to continue forging on in the Challenge Cup.
If they can find that momentum and play to their ability, they can go all the way to the final, like the Sharks did last season.
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But every player will have to buy into the plan with their actions, starting on Friday night in Edinburgh.
If they can play their Lions brand of rugby, looking at their winning record over the Scottish club side, they can cause an upset.
They will be up against it, though, and will have to deal with an unforgiving home crowd.
Should their forwards front up in the physical department and get Van den Berg and the rest of the backline on the front foot, they’ll be able to redeem themselves and book their place in the quarters.
Lions Team
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.
Bench: 16 Jaco Visagie 17 Juan Schoeman 18 RF Schoeman 19 Izan Esterhuizen 20 Sibabalo Qoma 21 Nico Steyn 22 JC Pretorius 23 Marius Louw.