Late change to WP bench

Johannesburg - Western Province on Friday were forced into making a late change to their replacements' bench for Saturday's Currie Cup clash against the Sharks at Newlands.

Prop JC Kritzinger picked up an ankle injury at training earlier this week which is more serious than initially suspected and is replaced by Yaya Hartzenberg.

Kritzinger will be out for 12 weeks, which is a blow to WP's front-row resources ahead of the Currie Cup season.

Kritzinger has battled back from two serious knee injuries in the last three seasons which have limited his appearances for the Stormers WP --46 matches across all competitions between 2008 and 2011.

WP team: Joe Pietersen, Gerhard van den Heever, JP du Plessis, Marcel Brache, Gio Aplon, Burton Francis, Dewaldt Duvenage, Jebb Sinclair, Tyrone Holmes, Deon Fourie (captain), De Kock Steenkamp, Don Armand, Frans Malherbe, Tiaan Liebenberg, Deon Carstens.

Replacements: Siyabonga Ntubeni, Brok Harris, Wilhelm van der Sluys, Yaya Hartzenberg, Louis Schreuder, Gary van Aswegen, Damian de Allende.