Sherratt back at Cardiff with two changes for Lions

United Rugby Championship: Cardiff v Lions

Venue: Arms Park, Cardiff Date: Friday, 21 March Kick off: 19:35 (GMT)

Coverage: Watch Scrum V Live, BBC Two Wales, iPlayer, BBC Sport wesbite and app. Highlights on the BBC Sport website and app.

Matt Sherratt returns to coach Cardiff for Friday's United Rugby Championship (URC) game against Lions, though none of the region's returning Six Nations players make the starting XV.

However, after his spell as interim national coach Sherratt will have four Wales internationals back to bolster the bench - with Keiron Assiratti, Teddy Williams, James Botham and Ellis Bevan named among the replacements.

The run-out side shows two changes to the starting line-up beaten 42-24 by URC leaders Leinster on 1 March.

Lock Seb Davies comes in to make his 150th appearance for the Blue and Blacks replacing Rory Thornton. Alex Mann pulls on the number seven jersey, with Thomas Young dropping to the bench.

Prop Corey Domachowski has recovered from injury to provide the loose-head cover.

Lions are boosted by the return of Springboks Ruan Venter and Quan Horn.

Cardiff are sixth in the URC with five wins and a draw from 12 games. They have 31 points, two more than eighth placed Lions, even though the South Africans have won six of their dozen games.

The home side have also hit their worst patch of the campaign and are without a win in their last four league matches. Sherratt's side's last victory came at Dragons on 26 December.

Their last URC victory at the Arms Park was also against their Newport-based neighbours, at the end of November.

The Lions have not travelled well - they have not won away from home in any competition since beating Zebre 10-9 in Parma on 19 October.

However, the Johannesburg side have lost just twice to Welsh regions in URC - at Scarlets in October 2021 and at Dragons in March 2024 - and have won all three meetings with Cardiff.

"It's an important game, which will go some way to deciding which path we go down of the rest of the season," said Sherratt.

"It's a tight league table and you can go from third to 12th in a couple of weeks, so it is important to pick up points at home.

"It's good to get some of the Wales boys back, and they give our squad a little bit more strength in depth."

Cardiff:Cam Winnett; Gabriel Hamer-Webb, Rey Lee-Lo, Rory Jennings, Harri Millard; Callum Sheedy, Johan Mulder; Danny Southworth, Liam Belcher (capt), Rhys Litterick, Josh McNally, Seb Davies, Ben Donnell, Alex Mann, Alun Lawrence.

Replacements: Efan Daniel, Corey Domachowski, Keiron Assiratti, Teddy Williams, James Botham, Thomas Young, Ellis Bevan, Tinus de Beer.

Lions: Quan Horn; Richard Kriel, Manuel Rass, Marius Louw, Edwill van der Merwe; Gianni Lombard, Nico Steyn; Juan Schoeman, PJ Botha, Asenathi Ntlabakanye, Ruben Schoeman, Darrien Landsberg, JC Pretorius, Ruan Venter, Francke Horn (capt).

Replacements: Franco Marais, SJ Kotze, RF Schoeman, Ruan Delport, Siba Qoma, Layton Horn, Jarod Cairns, Henco van Wyk.

Referee: Federico Vedovelli (FIR)

Assistant referees: Adam Jones & Aaron Parry (WRU)

TMO: Stefano Roscini (FIR)

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