Vleis Engelbrecht
Loose forward Jacques “Vleis” Engelbrecht has returned to the starting line-up for the Eastern Province Kings’ clash against the Steval Pumas on Friday.
Engelbrecht, who made a name for himself in the Southern Kings’ 2013 Super Rugby season with hard hits and bulldozing runs, replaces flank Stefan Willemse on the side of the scrum.
The 30-year-old has been a welcome return to the EP side (on loan) after he departed for the Bulls at the end of 2013.
Willemse has been included on the bench, but Janse van Rensburg said the flank had a slight niggle, which they believe will clear up for Friday’s game.
“Stefan hasn’t been able to take full part in our practices in the early part of the week, so we will start with Jacques and use Stefan on the bench,” Janse van Rensburg said.
The EP mentor has made 2 other injury enforced changes to his starting team.
Centre Tim Whitehead is out through concussion and flyhalf George Whitehead is suffering from a bang on the knee.
This has resulted in veteran centre Ronnie Cooke returning to the starting line-up at outside centre, with a positional switch being made by moving JP du Plessis to inside centre.
“Ronnie has plenty of experience and we believe we will benefit from his leadership abilities as well,” Janse van Rensburg said of the team’s deputy.
Karlo Aspeling steps in to take over at flyhalf.
The Kings coach confirmed that flyhalves Elgar Watts and Gary van Aswegen were still on the injured list and not available for selection.
Janse van Rensburg is backing his team to make further improvement this week after a fighting performance against the Cell C Sharks saw them lose 25 / 33 in Durban. He acknowledged, though, that they would face a fired-up Steval Pumas outfit.
“We know we need to be up for a big challenge against the Pumas, who are a tough, abrasive side and play an attacking game,” Janse van Rensburg said.
“We know we had a chance to put away the Sharks on Saturday, but did not take our opportunities and we made it hard for ourselves.
“But there has been improvement and lessons have been learnt, and it is up to us to keep working hard and to keep looking for consistent improvement each week.”
Eastern Province Kings: 15 Scott van Breda, 14 Siyanda Grey, 13 Ronnie Cooke, 12 JP du Plessis, 11 Luther Obi, 10 Karlo Aspeling, 9 Enrico Acker, 8 Tim Agaba, 7 Vleis Engelbrecht, 6 Luke Watson (Captain), 5 Cornell Hess, 4 Steven Sykes, 3 Tom Botha, 2 Martin Ferreira, 1 Schalk Ferreira
Replacements: 16 Edgar Marutlulle, 17 Lizo Gqoboka, 18 Simon Kerrod, 19 Stefan Willemse, 20 Thembelani Bholi, 21 Kevin Luiters, 22 Hansie Graaff.
Date: Friday 21 August
Venue: Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth
Kick-Off: 19:00 SA Time (17:00 GMT)
Referee: Rasta Rasivhenge
Assistant Referees: Jason Jaftha, Ruhan Meiring
TMO: TBA
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