The bullish former Pumas hooker is back at the Griquas following an absence of eight years when he played his rugby in Nelspruit and in Russia.

Westraadt has been named in the starting team for the game against the under-fire Lions and he is sure to be a handful on the field.

The Lions named a loaded team to tackle the Griquas and Westraadt told OFM Sport that he sees it as a compliment.

“With regards to the team that Lions are sending, it's the same as what the Bulls did a couple of weeks ago.

“It's actually a compliment to our team that whenever the so-called bigger unions come and play here, they load their teams with URC players.

“It tell us something and we are up for the challenge. You always want to measure yourself against the best.”

Wednesday afternoon's game at Tafel Lager Park kicks off at 15:30.

Griquas - 15 Rynhardt Jonker, 14 Munier Hartzenberg, 13 Sango Xamlashe, 12 Zander du Plessis, 11 Luther Obi, 10 Theo Boshoff, 9 Johan Mulder, 8 Siba Qoma, 7 Janru Sirgel, 6 Niel Otto (captain), 5 Derik Pretorius, 4 Mzwanele Zito, 3 Janu Botha, 2 Simon Westraadt, 1 Eddie Davids.

Replacements - 16 Janco Uys, 17 Kudzwai Dude, 18 Andries Schutte, 19 Luyolo Dapula, 20 Michael Amiras, 21 Stefan Ungerer, 22 Ashlon Davids, 23 Prince Nkabinde.

Lions - 15 EW Viljoen, 14 Rabz Maxwane, 13 Manuel Rass, 12 Matt More, 11 Divan Rossouw, 10 James Tedder, 9 Ginter Smuts, 8 Emanuel Tshituka, 7 Ruan Venter, 6 Jarod Cairns, 5 Simon Dionisio, 4 Lunga Ncube, 3 Jannie du Plessis (captain), 2 Morne Brandon, 1 Jean-Pierre Smith

Replacements - 16 Jacque-Louis du Toit, 17 Okuhle Siyeni, 18 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 19 MJ Pelser, 20 Mark Snyman, 21 Jurich Claasens, 22 Luke Rossouw, 23 James Mollentze

Morgan Piek/OFM Sport