Blue Bulls coach Pine Pienaar has named the same side that bravely outlasted the Lions in Johannesburg last week, to take on the resurgent Pumas in Currie Cup action at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night.
Dynamic young loose forward Warwick Tecklenburg, who replaced Dewald Potgieter late in the week prior to that match, retains his starting position with Potgieter being ruled out for the remainder of the season.
After a string of close losses, the Pumas managed to string together their first two wins of the competition in the last fortnight and they will have a full go at their more fancied rivals this weekend as they look to continue their climb up the log.
The Blue Bulls are still in dire straits in terms of possibly qualifying for the Currie Cup play-offs and Pienaar admitted that the Pumas would not make things any easier for his team.
“We had a huge fright against them in Nelspruit earlier in the season and only won 16-12. They are a tough nut to crack as they have showed by beating Griquas in Kimberley,” Pienaar said.
“We cannot look past this match. We need to run our own race and play our own game if we want to get there.”
Blue Bulls: 15 Zane Kirchner, 14 Bjorn Basson, 13 Wynand Olivier, 12 Francois Venter, 11 Gerhard van den Heever, 10 Louis Fouché, 9 Jano Vermaak, 8 CJ Stander, 7 Jacques Potgieter, 6 Warwick Tecklenburg, 5 Juandré Kruger, 4 Flip van der Merwe, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Gary Botha (captain), 1 Dean Greyling.
Replacements: 16 Willie Wepener, 17 Rossouw de Klerk, 18 Gerrit-Jan van Velze, 19 Arno Botha, 20 Dustin Jinka, 21 Francois Brummer, 22 Jurgen Visser.
Date: Friday 30 September
Kick-off: 19:10 SA Time
Venue: Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria
Referee: Sindile Mayende
Assistant referees: TBC, Johan Greeff
TMO: Jerome Fortuin