Is there more than meets the eye to Ruan Venter not playing for Lions against Connacht?

It has been suggested in some quarters that there has been dissention in the ranks of the under-siege Lions because of the non-selection of talented flanker Ruan Venter for Saturday’s United Rugby Championship match against Connacht at Ellis Park (4pm kick-off).

The website Rugby365 has highlighted that one-cap Springbok Venter had an obvious spat with teammate Darrien Landsberg during the Lions’ underwhelming performance against Benetton last week.

According to the report, the disagreement continued in a team meeting earlier this week.

Venter, one of the better Lions players, was conspicuous by his absence when coach Ivan van Rooyen named his team to play Connacht on Saturday.

Venter was later named on the injury list, and enquiries were met with the explanation that Venter has a “knee niggle”.

Lock Landsberg has been dropped to the bench.

While there is no confirmation of the Lions players turning on each other, it would be no surprise, given the growing criticism of the team.

The Lions are on a five-game losing streak, and only a mathematical miracle will prevent them from not making the URC top eight for the fourth year in succession.

The defeat to Benetton has the Lions languishing in 14th place on the URC log.

To make the top eight, they will need to win all three of their remaining games, with bonus points, and hope other results go their way.

But Van Rooyen, clutching at straws, believes his team are “still alive” in the tournament, and has made several changes to the team.

In some of the more surprising selections, in the loose trio, Jarod Cairns replaces the injured Francke Horn, alongside JC Pretorius and rookie Renzo du Plessis, while there is also a new centre pairing in Henco van Wyk, who is back from injury, and debutant Bronson Mills.

The latter was a schoolboy star for KES.

Another interesting selection is that of uncapped flyhalf Lubabalo Dobela on the bench. The former Grey High student has played for the Junior Boks, Cheetahs, Griquas and Blitzboks.

Meanwhile, Connacht coach Cullie Tucker says the Lions are packed with dangerous players.

Connacht earned two bonus points in their close 34-29 defeat to the Stormers last week, and are just five points outside the top eight, with three rounds to go.

They have everything to play for against the Lions.

“They’re another very physical team,” Tucker said.

“We’re in the land of physicality. They have a very strong set-piece, good maul, strong scrum and very good breakdown threats as well – JC Pretorius is one of the top poachers in the league.

“They’ve got some fantastic individual rugby players, like Morné van den Berg at nine and Quan Horn at 15.

“Asenathi Ntlabakanye at prop is a brilliant rugby player as well.

“They’ll stretch us, they’ll test us, and then we’ve got the altitude on top of that.”

Lions Team

15 Quan Horn 14 Richard Kriel 13 Henco van Wyk 12 Bronson Mills 11 Edwill van der Merwe 10 Kade Wolhuter 9 Morné 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 (captain) 1 Morgan Naudé.

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.