Schalk Burger makes a welcome return to the Stormers side and resumes the captaincy for their Super Rugby encounter the Sharks at Kings Park in Durban on Saturday.

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Burger’s return is timely, as fellow flank Pieter Louw has been ruled out with a knee injury.

“Schalk has been training with us again in the last couple of weeks and it’s good to have him back not just on the field, but also in the team environment,” Stormers coach Allister Coetzee said.

The tough flank admitted he was excited to get stuck into the action after a month on the sidelines.

“It’s good to be back after a nice holiday and now it’s time to do some work and a big game for me to be back in time to play,” Burger said.

Young lock-cum-flank Rynhardt Elstadt returns from injury to the second row to partner Andries Bekker in place of De Kock Steenkamp, who drops onto the bench.

“Rynhardt proved that he is definitely a first choice lock here and has taken his opportunity and played damn well in the opening games of the competition,” Coetzee explained.

“De Kock took his chance last week and that’s why you find a player like Anton van Zyl playing Vodacom Cup this weekend while he gets up to full match fitness.”

Those are the only two changes to the starting XV that demolished the Western Force, 51-16, last week as Coetzee opts for some consistency.

“I’m pleased with our combinations as they are now and that we have continuity and that they players are doing well,” the coach added.

“We battled a bit at the beginning and said that we weren’t far off with our attack and it came at the right time, so hopefully we can keep making good decisions and take our opportunities.”

On the bench Ethienne Reynecke comes in for Siyabonga Ntubeni, to provide cover at hooker and Gary van Aswegen is in place of Lionel Cronje.

Once again Coetzee hasn’t been tempted to use Jean de Villiers on the wing to offer Juan de Jongh a starting role inside Jaque Fourie.

“The centre combination is going well and the impact that Juan makes coming off the bench has been great,” he said.

“I’ve got a commitment to the players to pick them in their preferred positions and it is still early days in the competition.”

Stormers: 15 Gio Aplon, 14 Danie Poolman, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Peter Grant, 9 Dewaldt Duvenage, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Francois Louw, 6 Schalk Burger  (captain), 5 Andries Bekker, 4 Rynhardt Elstadt, 3 Brok Harris, 2 Deon Fourie, 1 Wicus Blaauw.
Replacements: 16 Ethienne Reynecke, 17 CJ van der Linde, 18 De Kock Steenkamp, 19 Nick Koster, 20 Ricky Januarie, 21 Gary van Aswegen, 22 Juan De Jongh.

Date: Saturday, April 2
Venue: Kings Park, Durban
Kick-off: 17.05 (15.05 GMT)
Referee: Mark Lawrence (South Africa)
Assistant referee: Sindile Mayende (South Africa), Reuben Rossouw (South Africa)
TMO: Shaun Veldsman (South Africa)