Cape Town - Gio Aplon has been named at fullback in the Stormers side to play the high-riding Highlanders in a Vodacom Super Rugby match at Newlands on Friday evening.

Aplon will replace Conrad Jantjes and the change has been welcomed by Stormers stand-in skipper Jean de Villiers, who is at the helm while the injured Schalk Burger is kicking his heels on the sidelines.

Jantjes has been rested as a precautionary measure as he has an Achilles niggle.

"We're in a wonderful position where we can replace one Springbok (Jantjes) with another (Aplon)," said De Villiers.

"We didn't do justice to the game last week, especially as we have a duty to the spectators and viewers to entertain.

"We'll try to create chances and spaces for Aplon to do well and hopefully he'll be the one that will help us to strike form again."

The Stormers held off the Cheetahs to win a kicking game 21-15 at Newlands on Saturday.

Springbok three-quarter Jaque Fourie, like Aplon, returns to the side but Stormers coach Allister Coetzee has decided to play him off the bench.

The other change is at the base of the scrum where Dewaldt Duvenhage swops places in the run-on XV with scrumhalf Ricky Januarie.

Both the Highlanders, from New Zealand, and the Stormers are unbeaten this season.

Teams:

DHL Stormers

15. Gio Aplon, 14. Danie Poolman, 13. Juan De Jongh, 12. Jean De Villiers (capt), 11. Bryan Habana, 10. Peter Grant, 9.  Dewaldt Duvenage, 8. Duane Vermuelen, 7. Francois Louw, 6. Pieter Louw, 5. Andries Bekker, 4. Rynhardt Elstadt, 3. Brok Harris, 2. Deon Fourie, 1. CJ van Der Linde

Substitutes: 16. Siyabonga Ntubeni, 17. Frans Malherbe / JC Kritzinger, 18. De Kock Steenkamp, 19. Nick Koster, 20. Ricky Januarie, 21. Gary Van Aswegen, 22. Jaque Fourie

Highlanders
TBA