Brüssow back for Cheetahs

Bloemfontein - Free State Cheetahs flanker Heinrich Brüssow is back in the starting line-up for his side's Currie Cup clash against Western Province in Bloemfontein on Saturday.

The Cheetahs have had to deal with a barrage of injury concerns, with stalwarts Boom Prinsloo (shoulder), Frans Viljoen (broken arm), Philip van der Walt (foot), Kabamba Floors (knee) and Juan Smith (Achilles) ruled out.

Brüssow joins Lappies Labuschagne and Davon Raubenheimer and form the starting loose trio.

Apart from Brüssow  - who recently recovered from a lengthy knee-injury - coach Naka Drotské has named veteran Springbok flanker Hendro Scholtz on the bench.

Scholtz left the Cheetahs in 2010 to play club rugby for French side Agen before returning to Bloemfontein and makes a welcome return to Drotske's outfit.

In the only other change to the starting line-up, Drotské has included centre Andries Strauss in place of Barry Geel.

Teams:

Free State Cheetahs:

15 Hennie Daniller, 14 Nico Scheepers, 13 Robert Ebersohn (captain), 12 Andries Strauss, 11 Raymond Rhule, 10 Sias Ebersohn, 9 Sarel Pretorius, 7 Davon Raubenheimer, 6 Lappies Labuschagne, 5 Heinrich Brüssow, 4 Izak van der Westhuizen, 4 Andries Ferreira, 3 Marcel van der Merwe, 2 Hercu Liebenberg, 1 Schalk van der Merwe.

Substitutes: 16 Elandré Huggett, 17 Ross Geldenhuys, 18 Waltie Vermeulen, 19 Hendro Scoltz, 20 Tewis de Bruyn, 21 Philip Snyman, 22 Rayno Benjamin.

Western Province:

15 Gio Aplon, 14 Gerhard van den Heever, 13 JP du Plessis, 12 Marcel Brache, 11 Damian de Allende, 10 Demetri Catrakilis, 9 Nic Groom, 8 Jebb Sinclair, 7 Rynhardt Elstadt, 6 Deon Fourie (captain), 5 De Kock Steenkamp, 4 Don Armand, 3 Brok Harris, 2 Siyabonga Ntubeni, 1 Deon Carstens

Substitutes: 16 Steven Kitshoff, 17 Frans Malherbe, 18 Wilhelm van der Sluys, 19 Helmut Lehmann, 20 Louis Schreuder 21 Patrick Howard, 22 Kurt Coleman