Itoje to start against South Africa 'A' on Wednesday

Maro Itoje will start for the British & Irish Lions against South Africa ‘A’ at Cape Town Stadium on Wednesday 14 July.

Fellow Saracens Mako Vunipola and Elliot Daly are on the bench, with Owen Farrell rested as well as Jamie George after captaining the side against the Sharks on Saturday. 

Tour captain Conor Murray is named skipper of a starting XV which has 12 changes to the team that defeated Cell C Sharks 31-71 at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday evening.

The game against South Africa ‘A’ will be shown live and exclusively on Sky Sports and is the fourth match in an eight-game Series culminating in the three Tests against World Champions, the Springboks. 

“We’re pleased to have arrived in Cape Town as we near the halfway stage of the Series,” said Gatland. 

“Wednesday’s game against South Africa ‘A’ will be our toughest encounter since we arrived here and we’re looking forward to it. We expect them to be physical in the contact area and look to test us at scrum time.”

“I think we’ve benefitted from playing at altitude in the first three games. While the boys have felt it in their lungs, they’ll be all the better for it now we’re at sea level. 

“As we move towards the business end of the Tour, it’s pleasing to see so many players putting in some stand-out performances. As coaches we want the players to make Test selection as hard as possible and that’s we’re seeing.” 

SOUTH AFRICA ‘A’ v THE BRITISH & IRISH LIONS

Wednesday 14 July 2021 

Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town 

Kick-off: 7pm (BST) 

15 Anthony Watson

14 Louis Rees-Zammit 

13 Chris Harris 

12 Bundee Aki 

11 Josh Adams 

10 Dan Biggar

9 Conor Murray 

1 Wyn Jones

2 Ken Owens

3 Kyle Sinckler 

4 Maro Itoje 

5 Iain Henderson 

6 Josh Navidi 

7 Tom Curry 

8 Taulupe Faletau

Replacements: 

16 Luke Cowan-Dickie 

17 Mako Vunipola 

18 Zander Fagerson

19 Adam Beard

20 Tadhg Beirne

21 Sam Simmonds 

22 Gareth Davies 

23 Elliot Daly