Duhan van der Merwe has been braced for sledging from South Africa as Warren Gatland admits leaving Josh Adams out of the British and Irish Lions team for Saturday's first Test was a difficult decision.

The most contentious call of the surprise XV announced by Gatland for the Cape Town Stadium showdown sees van der Merwe edge Adams for the second wing spot alongside Anthony Watson.

While can der Merwe has used his power and footwork to torment defences throughout the tour, Adams' stunning haul of eight tries was thought to have cemented his place in the starting XV.

"He had a pretty emotional week last week with the birth of his child and then the next couple of days checking in.

"By his own admission, he probably didn't play as well as he normally would have done against the Stormers and that's completely understandable because of the week he had.

"He had a knock on his hip and quite a significant blow to the sternum that was pretty sore as well.

"It was probably an easy out for us, really. I'm not saying that lightly, but he did have an emotional week. We looked at it and that was possibly the deciding factor."