Vodacom Bulls lock Flip van der Merwe has been ruled out of Saturday’s Vodacom Super Rugby clash against the Cell C Sharks due to a hamstring strain.
His place in the team will be taken by Paul Willemse, who will move from the bench into the number four jersey. The captaincy will be taken over by Victor Matfield.
Grant Hattingh, who was due to play for the Vodacom Blue Bulls in the Vodacom Cup clash against the Golden Lions on Saturday, has been promoted to the bench for the Vodacom Bulls.
Vodacom Bulls team (revised): 15 Jurgen Visser, 14 Sampie Mastriet, 13 JJ Engelbrecht, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Dewald Potgieter, 7 Jacques du Plessis, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Victor Matfield (Captain), 4 Paul Willemse, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Callie Visagie, 1 Dean Greyling
Replacements: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Morné Mellett, 18 Marcel van der Merwe, 19 Grant Hattingh, 20 Jono Ross, 21 Piet van Zyl, 22 Handré Pollard, 23 Ulrich Beyers.
Cell C Sharks director of rugby Jake White is upbeat, excited and confident ahead of his team’s Vodacom Super Rugby derby against the Bulls at Loftus on Saturday and the chance to forge further ahead.
“It’s not that they play differently at home to enjoy such a successful record, they haven’t played differently for 30 years,” he observes.
“We know what’s coming: Kicks from 9, kicks from 10, maul, a bit of variation.
“Then kick from 9, kick from 10, maul.
“That’s it.”
Dewald Potgieter has returned from Japan and will provide experience in the back row.
“They’ve been tried a few things at 8th man, now they have him here; in four fixtures, they’ve selected four eighthman, he’s their fourth, they see it as an important role.
“He will know exactly what his role is because that role hasn’t changed in the last umpteen years.
“He will do exactly the same as what he did last year and the year before that.”
“It’s easy to prepare against the Bulls,” says White.
“You can take a video from last week, the week before, last year, five years ago.
“You can probably click on any lineout and it’s exactly the same.
Dis is baie jammer oor Flip, maar Paul gaan daai manne onderstebo hardloop
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