Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson has made just one change to his starting XV to face the Lions in Sydney on Saturday.

Lock Tom Staniforth, who was on the bench for the 37-16 victory against the Reds, returns to the starting lineup in place of loose forward Will Miller.

Ned Hanigan, who started in the second row last week, shifts to the No 6 jersey to accommodate Staniforth at No 4.

‘We see this game being extremely physical and we wanted to have some bigger bodies in our forward pack to cater for the big South African forward pack that will be presented on Friday night,’ Gibson said.

Waratahs – 15 Bryce Hegarty, 14 Alex Newsome, 13 Curtis Rona, 12 Kurtley Beale, 11 Taqele Naiyaravoro, 10 Bernard Foley, 9 Jake Gordon, 8 Michael Wells, 7 Michael Hooper (c), 6 Ned Hanigan , 5 Rob Simmons, 4 Tom Staniforth, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Damien Fitzpatrick, 1 Tom Robertson.
Subs: 16 Hugh Roach, 17 Harry Johnson-Holmes, 18 Paddy Ryan, 19 Nick Palmer, 20 Jed Holloway, 21 Will Miller, 22 Nick Phipps, 23 Lalakai Foketi.

Photo: Mark Nolan/Getty Images