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Pumas coach tweaks winning combination

Nelspruit - Two Pumas stalwarts, flyhalf Justin van Staden and loose forward Francois Kleinhans, have been ruled out of Saturday’s Currie Cup clash against the Golden Lions in Johannesburg.

Coach Brent Janse van Rensburg had to tweak his winning combination of the last two weeks for this weekend’s game, with Kobus Marais slotting in at flyhalf and Willie Engelbrecht returning to the starting fold.

With Marais and Engelbrecht’s promotion, Chris Cloete and Neil Maritz return to a strong bench.

Engelbrecht effectively replaces Kleinhans in a straight swap at No 8.

Both Van Staden and Kleinhans suffered knocks to the head in the Pumas’ 51-15 victory over the Blue Bulls last Friday.

The Pumas are on a roll after victories over Griquas and the Bulls and would like to keep the momentum against opponents which they beat in round one.

Saturday’s clash at Ellis Park is scheduled for 14:00.

Teams:

Golden Lions

15 Sylvian Mahuza, 14 Madosh Tambwe, 13 Manual Rass, 12 Rohan Janse van Rensburg, 11 Aphiwe Dyantyi, 10 Ashlon Davids, 9 Marco Jansen van Vuren, 8 Ryan Kankowski, 7 Fabian Booysen, 6 Cyle Brink, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Andries Ferreira, 3 Ruan Dreyer, 2 Robbie Coetzee, 1 Jacques van Rooyen (captain)

Substitutes: 16 Pieter Jansen, 17 Corné Fourie, 18 Jacobie Adriaanse, 19 Robert Kruger, 20 Hacjivah Dayimani, 21 Branco du Preez, 22 Jaco van der Walt

Pumas

15 Gerrit Smith, 14 JP Lewis, 13 Jerome Pretorius, 12 Hennie Skorbinski (captain), 11 Ruwellyn Isbell, 10 Kobus Marais, 9 Stefan Ungerer, 8 Willie Engelbrecht, 7 Lambert Groenewald, 6 Thembelani Bholi, 5 Hugo Kloppers, 4 Stefan Willemse, 3 Pieter Scholtz, 2 Mark Pretorius, 1 Kwezi Mona.

Substitutes: 16 Frankie Herne, 17 De-Jay Terblanche, 18 Cameron Lindsay, 19 Brian Shabangu, 20 Chris Cloete, 21 Reynier van Rooyen, 22 Neil Maritz

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