Dewald Potgieter

Blue Bulls coach Pine Pienaar has recalled fit again Springbok loose forward Dewald Potgieter to his side to take on the Natal Sharks in a Currie Cup Rugby clash at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

Potgieter recovered from the broken nose that sidelined him from their last two fixtures, but is back and replaces Arno Botha, who will revert to the role of impact player off the bench.

In more changes, Pienaar was able to call on fit again Bjorn Basson and Juandre Kruger, who both missed last week’s clash against the Leopards due to flu and an ankle injury respectively.

There is a change on the bench too, with Francois Brummer coming back into the fray.

Pienaar said that his side is still under pressure to get into the top four of the log.

“We might have won three in a row now, but it means nothing until we have moved into the play-off positions. Our aim remains to win the Currie Cup this year and to put ourselves in that position we will have to keep on winning and beat the Sharks on the weekend. ”

“It is great for a coach to be able to recall players like Dewald, Bjorn and Juandre, but it is still no guarantee for success. We will still need to bring our absolute A-game if we want to beat a very good side,” Pienaar said.

The Blue Bulls team for the match, to start at 17h05, is:

Jurgen Visser, Akona Ndungane, Zane Kirchner, Wynand Olivier, Bjorn Basson, Louis Fouche, Jano Vermaak, CJ Stander, Dewald Potgieter, Warwick Tecklenburg, Juandre Kruger, Flip van der Merwe, Werner Kruger, Gary Botha (c), Dean Greyling.

Replacements: Willie Wepener, Rossouw de Klerk, Gerrit-Jan van Velze, Arno Botha, Francois Brummer, Francois Venter.