Lions (United Rugby Championship)

Lions

Full name	Lions
Union	South African Rugby Union
Emblem(s)	Lion
Founded	1889 (Transvaal Rugby Union) 1996 (Lions franchise)
Location	Johannesburg, South Africa
Ground(s)	Emirates Airline Park (Capacity: 62,567)
Coach(es)	Ivan van Rooyen
Captain(s)	Marius Louw
Most appearances	Elton Jantjies (131)
Top scorer	Elton Jantjies (1,183)
Most tries	Courtnall Skosan (33)
League(s)	United Rugby Championship
2022–23	9th (South African Shield: 4th)
1st kit 2nd kit 3rd kit
Official website
lionsrugby.co.za

The Lions (known as the Emirates Lions for sponsorship reasons) is a South African professional rugby union team based in Johannesburg in the Gauteng province. They competed in the Super Rugby competition until 2020, and have competed in the United Rugby Championship since 2021. They are the successor of the teams known as Transvaal (1996), Gauteng Lions (1997) and the Cats (1998–2006).

They had varied results in Super Rugby, finishing at the bottom of the table six times (in 1998, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2010 and 2012), but reaching the semifinal stage five times (in 2000, 2001, 2016, 2017 and 2018). They reached their first final in 2016 – where they lost to the Hurricanes 20–3 in Wellington – and repeated the feat in 2017, losing 17–25 to the Crusaders in Johannesburg. The team reached their 3rd consecutive final in 2018 when they lost against the Crusaders 38–17 in Christchurch. The team plays its home matches at Ellis Park Stadium.

The team faced relegation from the Super 14 after the Southern Spears won a court ruling that they should be included in the competition in place of the lowest ranked South African team in the 2006 competition. However, the Spears and the country's national federation, the South African Rugby Union, reached a settlement of their legal case. By the terms of the settlement, announced on 16 November 2006, the financially troubled Spears abandoned their case.^[1]

As part of a second attempt to introduce Super Rugby into the Eastern Cape, the South African Rugby Union mandated that the Lions, who finished bottom of the 2012 Super Rugby table, would be replaced in the 2013 competition by the Southern Kings from Port Elizabeth.^[2] The Lions' exclusion lasted just one season as they regained their place in Super Rugby for the 2014 season by beating the Southern Kings in a two leg playoff after the Kings finished bottom of the 2013 South African conference.