Twenty year old Francois Venter is set to make his first Absa Currie Cup start for the Vodacom Blue Bulls in their fixture against the Golden Lions at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.
Venter, who played off the bench for the first three matches in the competition in his debut year in senior rugby, will wear the number 12 jersey for this encounter and partner Stefan Watermeyer in the midfield.
Vodacom Blue Bulls coach Pine Pienaar made numerous changes to the starting line-up that lost to Western Province last weekend, with a host of players returning from Springboks duty and ready for their first Currie Cup action of the year. Injuries to the likes of Jurgen Visser, Gerhard van den Heever and Wynand Olivier impacted on his selections as well.
Zane Kirchner and Bjorn Basson join the action at full back and left wing respectively, while Flip van der Merwe, Werner Kruger, Chiliboy Ralepelle and Dean Greyling will provide some grunt up front. Deon Stegmann will play off the bench.
Ralepelle will start at hooker, with regular captain, Gary Botha, moving to the bench. This means that will Dewald Potgieter captains the side for the first time this season.
CJ Stander will also start at the back of the scrum in a re-jigged loose trio.
“It is great to have some familiar faces back as this will give us a lot of confidence in this crucial game at home,” Pienaar said.
“Individually, all those players will bring a lot to our effort, but we will still need to play as a team if we want to be successful,” Pienaar warned.
“The Lions are not the frontrunners for nothing.”
Potgieter said the captaincy is a huge honour, but not the main focus on his mind.
“We need to get some consistency and momentum in our performances. It will be important to make sure all of us are pulling in the same direction in achieving that.”
The Vodacom Blue Bulls team to play the Golden Lions is:
15 Zane Kirchner, 14 Akona Ndungane, 13 Stefan Watermeyer, 12 Francois Venter, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Francois Brümmer, 9 Dustin Jinka, 8 CJ Stander, 7 Dewald Potgieter (c), 6 Derick Kuün, 5 Juandré Kruger, 4 Flip van der Merwe, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Chiliboy Ralepelle, 1 Dean Greyling.
Replacements: 16 Gary Botha, 17 Rossouw de Klerk, 18 Fudge Mabeta, 19 Deon Stegmann, 20 Lohan Jacobs, 21 Marnitz Boshoff, 22 Stephan Dippenaar.
Strong side, but it will lack some cohesion. Lions to take this one by 5
Ek is bly dat Pinetown Pienaar die jong manne soos Francois Venter ‘n kans gee, sal graag wil sien wat hy kan doen, hy lyk lus vir speel. Oor Brummer en Jinka, Jinka word al beter, maar Brummer moet nou sy 5000ste kans aangegryp en iets doen.
2@ bendiebul:
Dustbin word effe beter.. moet net daai onnodige 2 treetjies uitsny voor hy pass. Hulle lees hom soos ‘n boek, as hy eers beginne treetjies gee.
Vir Brommer het ek nie hoop nie!
Francois Venter wil ek ook graag sien goed doen… hy het baie potensiaal.
Saying this in the press makes me wonder if Dewald is such a great prospect as captain. Also remember his colum on Supersport, he talks a bit too much from the inner circle for me.
Dewald Potgieter was handed the captaincy at the team announcement on Wednesday after Bok hooker Chiliboy Ralepelle replaced regular skipper and hooker Gary Botha.
Potgieter said the returning Boks would make it challenging for the side to find a common goal as some players would still want to play for a spot in the national team going to the World Cup next month.
“In an ideal world you would want to say that all the players are focussed on one goal which is to win the Currie Cup,” Potgieter said.
“But we all know that the guys who are returning would like to send a message that they can still be part of the Bok setup.
“The secret is to manage it by telling the guys that we might have 22 players with different goals but everyone’s goals are so much easier to reach by simply helping each other.”
I don’t know if the young Venter is the answer at 12! In the WC for young bookkies, he was not keen on passing, and thus in the same mould as Olivier! Guess that fits in well with the Bulls game plan, time will tell!
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