Cameron Shepherd will return to his preferred position at fullback when the Western Force take on the last-placed Lions in Saturday's Super 14 clash in Johannesburg.

Shepherd has improved in each of his three outings since returning from a nine-week injury lay-off.

The 26-year-old has played on the wing since his return from a torn quad but will replace Mark Bartholomeusz at fullback against the Lions, with regular fullback James O'Connor still out injured.

The Force will take a 26-man squad to South Africa, with O'Connor (shoulder) and prop Tim Fairbrother (ankle) included in the travelling party despite being unavailable for the first game of the three-match tour.

Scott Staniforth returns from a calf injury and is expected to start on the wing.

Coach John Mitchell was confident his team could defeat the Lions, Cheetahs (Bloemfontein) and the Sharks (Durban) after last week's stirring victory over the Crusaders.

"It's important we continue the momentum and we back up after the performance on the weekend," Mitchell said.

"It's important that we finish the season on a high in terms of our performance.

"We are looking to avoid performance drop off.

"We've had three wins out of the last four and the performance in Auckland (against the Blues in round 10) was too much of a drop off for our liking.

"We are focusing on how we can maintain our attitude and be really sharp in our preparation."

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