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Pretoria - Blue Bulls coach Pine Pienaar made three changes to his side that will play Western Province in a Currie Cup match at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday (17:05 kick-off).
Ulrich Beyers is back in the starting team at outside centre, swopping places with Waylon Murray, who moves to the bench. At scrumhalf, Rudy Paige starts in place of Ruan Snyman, who has moved to France.
Lohan Jacobs is the replacement No 9. Pienaar also rotated Jacques Engelbrecht and Jacques du Plessis, with the latter now starting and Engelbrecht being used as impact player.
Dean Greyling will also make his first appearance in the competition and was picked as replacement prop.
"We did well last weekend and would like to build on that momentum," Pienaar said.
"As we had real no injuries, it made sense to play with the same group of players, but I have made some tweaks that I believe will create the necessary spark for us," Pienaar said.
Captain Jono Ross added: "We gave ourselves a chance to get into a play-off spot last week, but that will only be worthwhile if we can repeat that type of performance. We lacked consistency this far, so will have to be very focused on starting well and building a decent performance."
Teams:
Blue Bulls:
15 Jürgen Visser, 14 Sampie Mastriet, 13 Ulrich Beyers, 12 Francois Venter, 11 Akona Ndungane, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Rudy Paige, 8 Jono Ross (captain), 7 Jacques du Plessis, 6 Wiaan Liebenberg, 5 Grant Hattingh, 4 Paul Willemse, 3 Frik Kirsten, 2 Mbongeni Mbonambi, 1 Marcel van der Merwe.
Substitutes: 16 Bandise Maku, 17 Dean Greyling, 18 David Bullbring, 19 Jacques Engelbrecht, 20 21 Lohan Jacobs, 22 Waylon Murray, 23 Clayton Blommetjies
Western Province:
15. Gio Aplon, 14. Gerhard van den Heever, 13. Juan de Jongh, 12. Damian de Allende, 11. Cheslin Kolbe, 10. Kurt Coleman, 9. Louis Schreuder, 8. Nizaam Carr, 7. Michael Rhodes, 6. Rynhardt Elstadt 5. De Kock Steenkamp (captain), 4. Taz Fuzani, 3. Pat Cilliers, 2. Scarra Ntubeni, 1. Steven Kitshoff
Substitutes: 16. Michael Willemse, 17. Brok Harris, 18. Gerbrandt Grobler, 19. Rohan Kitshoff, 20. Nic Groom, 21. Gary van Aswegen, 22. Michael van der Spuy
Ulrich Beyers is back in the starting team at outside centre, swopping places with Waylon Murray, who moves to the bench. At scrumhalf, Rudy Paige starts in place of Ruan Snyman, who has moved to France.
Lohan Jacobs is the replacement No 9. Pienaar also rotated Jacques Engelbrecht and Jacques du Plessis, with the latter now starting and Engelbrecht being used as impact player.
Dean Greyling will also make his first appearance in the competition and was picked as replacement prop.
"We did well last weekend and would like to build on that momentum," Pienaar said.
"As we had real no injuries, it made sense to play with the same group of players, but I have made some tweaks that I believe will create the necessary spark for us," Pienaar said.
Captain Jono Ross added: "We gave ourselves a chance to get into a play-off spot last week, but that will only be worthwhile if we can repeat that type of performance. We lacked consistency this far, so will have to be very focused on starting well and building a decent performance."
Teams:
Blue Bulls:
15 Jürgen Visser, 14 Sampie Mastriet, 13 Ulrich Beyers, 12 Francois Venter, 11 Akona Ndungane, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Rudy Paige, 8 Jono Ross (captain), 7 Jacques du Plessis, 6 Wiaan Liebenberg, 5 Grant Hattingh, 4 Paul Willemse, 3 Frik Kirsten, 2 Mbongeni Mbonambi, 1 Marcel van der Merwe.
Substitutes: 16 Bandise Maku, 17 Dean Greyling, 18 David Bullbring, 19 Jacques Engelbrecht, 20 21 Lohan Jacobs, 22 Waylon Murray, 23 Clayton Blommetjies
Western Province:
15. Gio Aplon, 14. Gerhard van den Heever, 13. Juan de Jongh, 12. Damian de Allende, 11. Cheslin Kolbe, 10. Kurt Coleman, 9. Louis Schreuder, 8. Nizaam Carr, 7. Michael Rhodes, 6. Rynhardt Elstadt 5. De Kock Steenkamp (captain), 4. Taz Fuzani, 3. Pat Cilliers, 2. Scarra Ntubeni, 1. Steven Kitshoff
Substitutes: 16. Michael Willemse, 17. Brok Harris, 18. Gerbrandt Grobler, 19. Rohan Kitshoff, 20. Nic Groom, 21. Gary van Aswegen, 22. Michael van der Spuy
