The Vodafone Wellington Lions are hunting a bonus point win against Waikato tomorrow night in Hamilton in round 12 of the ITM Cup, kick-off 6.05pm.

There are four personnel changes to the Vodafone Wellington Lions' starting XV to meet the Mooloo. In the forwards, Motu Matu'u replaces hooker Dane Coles, who has a leg injury, and Faifili Levave comes back into the side for Dean Brunsdon at Blindside flanker.

In the backs, Conrad Smith re-joins the All Blacks and Charlie Ngatai is also sidelined with a leg injury meaning Michael Hobbs returns to second five-eighth and Jason Woodward comes on to the left wing. Alapati Leiua, moves in from the three-quarters to centre.

In the reserves, New Zealand U20 prop Solomona Sakalia will earn his first Lions cap should he take the field in the number 23 jersey, while Michael Lealava'a also re-joins the substitutions bench.

The Lions can still make the ITM Premiership final with two wins, preferably both with bonus points, and other results going their way in the last two rounds.

With two rounds to go, Canterbury leads the way with 27 points, but below the Lambs, just six points separates current second placed Auckland (on 25 points) and seventh and last placed Southland (19).

If the Lions (20) can topple Waikato (24) with a bonus point, Canterbury beat Bay of Plenty (22) away at Mt Maunganui and Southland beat Taranaki (23) in a Ranfurly Shield defence, then the Lions would leapfrog Waikato, Taranaki and Bay of Plenty and move from sixth to third heading into the last round.

They would then have everything to play for in their last round match against North Harbour at Albany, where a bonus point win over Harbour and a loss for Auckland against Waikato down the road at Hamilton would propel the Lions into the final against Canterbury.

After coming off a 20-54 defeat at the hands of championship side the Manawatu Turbos in their last match at Palmerston North on Saturday and with the prospect of meeting Auckland to decide their fate should they lose to the Lions, Waikato will be going all out to beat Wellington.

The Mooloo were well and truly put out to pasture by Manawatu on Saturday, going down in a flurry of try scoring early in the match and the boot of Aaron Cruden who kicked 24 points.

The loss was Waikato's third loss in eight matches, while their most convincing win was their 27-13 victory over Canterbury when they themselves leapt to a match-winning early lead.

In comparison, the Lions have won four and lost four, and go into this game after beating Southland 30-25 in their last round-robin match of the season at Westpac Stadium.

Wellington - Waikato matches are always willing encounters and both sides bring the best out of each other whenever they meet. With so much as stake, this clash promises to be no different.

The Lions won 26-14 when they met last year in Wellington, but Waikato won 23-18 when they met last at Waikato Stadium in 2009.

These last two results were actually low scoring compared to the general overall pattern of games between the Lions and the Mooloo.

In 2008, for example, the Lions won 45-33 at home after racing to a 26-0 lead after 18 minutes before Waikato hit back with two tries before halftime and a further three in the second half in a 12-try thriller.

This in turn followed on from a sequence of symmetrical scoring over the previous four matches between the two sides that saw Wellington's scores in these games against Waikato being 41, 21, 31 and 41, and Waikato's four scores against the Lions being 17, 37, 37 and 27.

Tuesday's match will be the 34th ITM Cup/NPC fixture between Wellington and Waikato since their inaugural NPC meeting in 1976. Of the previous 33, the Lions have won 19 and Waikato 14.

Wellington has scored a total of 107 tries in all ITM Cup/NPC matches against Waikato. Waikato has scored a total of 94 tries in all ITM Cup/NPC matches against Wellington.

Wellington and Waikato first met in 1923 and have played 63 times overall with Wellington winning 34, Waikato 28 and one draw (0-0 in 1966).

The Lions' highest score over Waikato was the 55-18 win in 1988, fullback John Gallagher kicking six conversions and 27 points in the 37-point win.

Other notable victories over Waikato in the ITM Cup/NPC era include: 47-26 (1984), 42-29 (1998), 38-17 (1999, semi-final), 48-23 (2000) and 30-29 (2000, semi-final).

Five Wellington players have scored hat tricks of tries against Waikato. These are: K. Hawea (1973), W. Proctor (1976), Emosi Koloto (1988), Tana Umaga (1995) and Hosea Gear (2006). Three of these were in Hamilton and two in losing sides.

The most penalties kicked by a Wellington player in an ITM Cup/NPC match against Waikato is six by Allan Hewson at Hamilton in 1985, Piri Weepu at Wellington in 2004 and Daniel Kirkpatrick at Hamilton in 2009.