Pretoria - Injuries to key players forced the Blue Bulls to give some of their future stars a place in the starting line-up for Friday’s match against Griquas in Pretoria.
Arno Botha, who captained the Baby Boks this year, was selected to start at flank in the place of Deon Stegmann (cheekbone fracture) while Tukkies flanker Warwick Tacklenburg will stand in for Dewald Potgieter.
Potgieter was ruled out after he had to undergo surgery to his nose.
This means the experienced Gary Botha will captain the team from the frontrow where he takes over from Chiliboy Ralepelle who is in camp with the Springboks.
Willie Wepener was selected as frontrow cover.
Another youngster who is set to earn his first starting cap is flyhalf Louis Fouche.
Fouche swapped places with Marnitz Boshoff who now finds himself on the bench with the final change to the team being the inclusion of Jono Ross on the team’s list of replacements.
Teams:Blue Bulls: 15 Jurgen Visser, 14 Akona Ndungane, 13 Zane Kirchner, 12 Wynand Olivier, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Louis Fouche, 9 Jano Vermaak, 8 CJ Stander, 7 Warwick Tecklenburg, 6 Arno Botha, 5 Juandr Kruger, 4 Flip van der Merwe, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Gary Botha, 1 Dean Greyling.
Subtsitutes: 16 Willie Wepener, 17 Rossouw de Klerk, 18 Gerrit-Jan van Velze, 19 Jono Ross, 20 Dustin Jinka, 21 Marnitz Boshoff, 22 Francois Venter.
Griquas:
TBA