Pretoria - Blue Bulls coach Pine Pienaar made one enforced change to his line-up for Friday’s Absa Currie Cup match against the Free State Cheetahs in Bloemfontein.

Arno Botha, who started in the 35-20 win over Griquas on Friday, is out with a hamstring injury and CJ Stander will start in the No 7 jersey.

Stander, who played off the bench at Loftus Versfeld last week, will in turn be replaced by hard-working fetcher Warwick Tecklenburg, who will earn a first start in the 2012 competition, should he be called upon.

Pienaar confirmed a need for continuity as the main reason behind his thinking.

“We won well against Griquas and the players need to be rewarded for that, but more important for me at this stage of the competition are for the team to get some momentum, cohesion and continuity. I was very pleased with the way the bench played as well, so is happy with the balance as we have it right now. “

Blue Bulls captain Dewald Potgieter is looking forward to the match.

“There is an excitement around the Currie Cup and what we can do as a relatively young team. We had a good start, but the challenge for us will be to go to Bloemfontein and get a result. We need to be looking for improvement all the way and playing the Cheetahs at home will be a good test of our abilities and how shape up as a team when under pressure.”

Teams:

Free State Cheetahs:

TBA

Blue Bulls:

15 Jürgen Visser, 14 Akona Ndungane, 13 Ulrich Beyers, 12 Francois Venter, 11 Clayton Blommetjies, 10 Louis Fouchè, 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 Cronjè, 22 Jan Serfontein