The South Africa centre, Jacque Fourie, will not feature for the Golden Lions against the British and Irish Lions at Johannesburg's Ellis Park on Wednesday evening.
The 42-cap Fourie, who has recently returned from injury, will this evening be named in the South Africa squad for the Tests against the Lions, but three other players with a chance of making the three-match series will feature for the Golden Lions: the full-backs Louis Ludik and Earl Rose and the scrum-half Jano Vermaak. Several players are ruled out of the team because of injury, including the Springboks Jannes Labuschagne (lock) and Heinke van der Merwe (prop).
"I have spoken with the South African management and some of our guys will be involved with the Springboks," said the Golden Lions' acting head coach, Hans Coetzee. "They will be joining up with them later today, but they will definitely be involved with us on Wednesday."
Coetzee was brought in last week after the Golden Lions sacked Eugene Eloff after a poor Super 14 campaign and a report into the franchise conducted by the former South Africa coach, Jake White, who has worked with Coetzee in the past. The players threatened to go on strike in protest, but were talked out of it by Eloff.
White will not be involved in the preparations for Wednesday. He is currently in Bloemfontein, where the Lions play the third match of their tour on Saturday, carrying out a coaching clinic with the former Saracens' director of rugby, Eddie Jones.
"There was some upheaval last week, but the guys are ready for Wednesday," said Coetzee. "It has brought everyone together and I can guarantee that we will be very competitive. I did not expect to be preparing for such a big match as only a few weeks ago I was coaching the Golden Lions Under-19s and it is a great opportunity for us all."
Coetzee said he was surprised by the way the Lions played in their opening match against a Royal XV last Saturday. "I expected them to go through their forwards and maul a lot, but they adopted a very open game. They were not afraid to run from their own territory and there was less kicking out of hand than we saw in the Six Nations.
"They were very dangerous, and while they only won the game in the final minutes, they could easily have scored four or five more tries had passes gone to hand or not been dropped. Lee Byrne was especially dangerous at full-back and we have had to have a rethink, even though we know we will be facing a different side.
"We like to move the ball around and it should make for a fast, open game. We have to make sure that we do not give them opportunities to counter-attack because it is clear that they are prepared to have a go from anywhere on the pitch. We are going to have to play under different rules from the Super 14, but I do not think that will give them an advantage."
The Golden Lions captain, Cobus Grobbelaar, said he expected the Lions to have worked on the breakdown. "It did not go that well for them on Saturday, especially in the first-half, but they have some big guys and that area is sure to be highly competitive.
"We have come together as a squad after the events of last week. We wanted to make sure that the players had a voice and we achieved that. There is now transparency and honesty and we have taken the first step to a better future. We are definitely in the right frame of mind to take on the Lions."
The replacements' bench, meanwhile, includes two forwards bound for Guinness Premiership club Saracens next season – hooker Ethienne Reynecke and flanker Ernst Joubert.
Golden Lions L Ludik; M Killian, J Boshoff, D la Grange, D Noble; A Pretorius, J Vermaak; L Sephaka, W Wepener, G Muller, B Mockford, W Stoltz, C Grobbelaar, F van der Merwe, W Alberts. Replacements E Reynecke, J Van Rensburg, E Joubert, T Clever, C Jonck, W Venter, E Rose.
