The clash against former coach John Mitchell’s Lions will see just two changes to the starting 15 with Nick Cummins returning from injury and Alfie Mafi back in the side after an electrifying performance against the Rebels last week.
Cummins returns on the wing after a week’s rest to recover from a quadriceps strain and will lead his side onto the field in his 50th Emirates Western Force and FxPro Super Rugby cap.
“It’s great to see Nick reach the 50 game milestone and we are looking forward to seeing him back out there and making an impact on the wing,” said Emirates Western Force Forwards Coach Nick Stiles.
“He started off the year in very good form but he fluctuated there for a couple of games and now we want him out on the field as much as possible.
“Nick is a very strong ball-carrier. You look at our side this week with him, Napolioni Nalaga, Will Tupou and Rory Sidey and its evident we’ve got a lot of size and it’s up to us now to utilise their power and strength with their running to give us the best potential we can of winning.”
Mafi’s impact from the bench against the Rebels was a pivotal turning point for the side as he injected some much needed speed and energy into the game with a try in the second half. This week will see him start at fullback against the Lions with David Harvey moving back onto the bench.
We just want to make sure the people we use as ball-carriers are very strong and they give us the best chance of going forward and Alfie certainly showed that when he came onto the field last week,” Stiles said.
Saturday will be the Emirates Western Force’s last game before the bye in round 15 and a three week break for the international tests so the side is focussed on bringing home a win against the Lions and finishing the season on a high.
“It would be great to hit the break on the back of our third win for the year and it would give us a really good target to finish the season off, freshen up and come back and play the last three games and win as many as we can,” said Stiles.
“There are still four games to go and we’ve got to win as many of those games as we can because we’ve definitely made some improvements.
“Even though we lost against the Rebels on the weekend we’ve analysed the game and it’s some of the best stuff we’ve done all year.
“There are still areas we need to work on definitely but we’ve just got to get a better performance through the full 80 minutes.”
2012 FxPro Super Rugby – Week 14
Emirates Western Force v Lions
Saturday, 26 May 2012 at nib Stadium, Perth
Kick-off: 7.40pm (AWST)
1. Pek Cowan
2. Nathan Charles
3. Salesi Ma’afu
4. Toby Lynn
5. Nathan Sharpe
6. Matt Hodgson
7. David Pocock
8. Ben McCalman
9. Brett Sheehan
10. Ben Seymour
11. Napolioni Nalaga
12. Rory Sidey
13. Will Tupou
14. Nick Cummins
15. Alfie Mafi
16. Elvis Taione
17. Salesi Manu
18. Phoenix Battye
19. Richard Brown
20. Lachlan McCaffrey
21. Josh Holmes
22. David Harvey