Kick-off is at 16h05 and the match will be broadcast live on SuperSport.

Odendaal comes back to lead a fairly settled match-23 as the men from Joburg look to add to their impressive home record against overseas opponents in the tournament.

Carlu Sadie and Jaco Visagie will offer experience and impact off the bench, with Andre Warner covering the halfback position.

Emirates Lions assistant coach Ricardo Loubscher emphasised the need for his group of players to bounce back in what is his team’s penultimate home game in the competition.

“The big thing for us now is to bounce back and it all starts with Connacht on Saturday,” he said.

“Key for us at this stage of the competition is to do well in our upcoming two games at home before we play the Dragons away in our final fixture next month.”

The former Springbok fullback believes Connacht will come to Emirates Airline Park aiming for a positive result as they look to build on their win record against South African opposition in the Vodacom URC thus far.

“Connacht are a very good side, who play for each other and carry quite a bit of belief in how they do things,” Loubscher commented.

“We will need to find ways of breaking them down and one way we believe we can achieve that, is by playing to our strengths which we’ve executed quite well in previous weeks.”

Emirates Lions: 15 Quan Horn, 14 Rabz Maxwane, 13 Wandisile Simelane, 12 Burger Odendaal (capt), 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Jordan Hendrikse, 9 Morne van den Berg, 8 Emmanuel Tshituka, 7 Vincent Tshituka, 6 Francke Horn, 5 Reinhard Nothnagel, 4 Ruben Schoeman, 3 Ruan Dreyer, 2 PJ Botha, 1 Sti Sithole. Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 JP Smith, 18 Carlu Sadie, 19 Ruan Venter, 20 Sibusiso Sangweni, 21 Andre Warner, 22 Manuel Rass, 23 Tiaan Swanepoel.