Cape Town - Blue Bulls coach Pine Pienaar has explained his decision not to include the fit-again Johann Sadie in his 22-man squad for their Currie Cup clash against the Free State Cheetahs on Friday.

Pienaar on Tuesday made one enforced change to his line-up with CJ Stander coming in for the injured Arno Botha at No 7. Warwick Tecklenburg takes Stander's place on the bench.

But there was no place for centre Sadie, who will join the Cheetahs after the Currie Cup season.

Sadie was out of action for almost two months following an ankle injury sustained during the Bulls' Super Rugby campaign, but has fully recovered and was available for selection.

However, Pienaar wants to reward the players for their form in the opening fixture - when they beat Griquas 35-20 at home - by retaining as much as possible of the side to capitalise on the momentum gained.

“I just felt that Johann hasn’t had any game time since May and was out with injury, that he should have another week to work on his sharpness and conditioning. He is likely to be in the mix next week,” Pienaar told supersport.com.

The Bulls' match against the Cheetahs starts at 19:10 in Bloemfontein on Friday evening.

Teams:

Free State Cheetahs:

TBA

Blue Bulls:

15 Jürgen Visser, 14 Akona Ndungane, 13 Ulrich Beyers, 12 Francois Venter, 11 Clayton Blommetjies, 10 Louis Fouché, 9 Ruan Snyman, 8 Dewald Potgieter (captain), 7 CJ Stander, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Cornell Hess, 4 Wilhelm Steenkamp, 3 Frik Kirsten, 2 Willie Wepener, 1 Dawie Steyn

Substitutes: 16 Robbie Coetzee, 17 Werner Kruger, 18 Grant Hattingh, 19 Warwick Tecklenburg, 20 Lohan Jacobs, 21 Lionel Cronjé, 22 Jan Serfontein