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No SBW to terrorise Bulls

Cape Town - The Bulls won't have to contend with the silky skills of Sonny Bill Williams in their Super Rugby clash in Rotorua on Friday.

Kick-off is at 09:35 SA time.

Williams, who was forced to pull out of the Chiefs' showdown with the table-topping Hurricanes last weekend with a back injury, hasn't recovered in time for selection.

The Chiefs have however made three changes to their starting line-up which went down 22-18 in Wellington.

In the front row, loosehead Mitchell Graham replaces Pauliasi Manu, who drops to the bench. Johan Bardoul will start in the second row in place of the injured Michael Allardice, while Michael Fitzgerald has been bracketed with Ross Filipo as Bardoul's partner. 

The only change to the backs sees scrumhalf Augustine Pulu return to the run-on XV, with Brad Weber shifting to the bench. The Chiefs have also been boosted with the return of utility back Tim Nanai-Williams to the match 23.

The Chiefs currently occupy second place in the New Zealand Conference and fourth in the Overall standings.

The Bulls sit top of the South African Conference and third in the Overall log - despite boasting four fewer points than their opponents, from the same number of matches (12).

Teams:

Chiefs

15 Tom Marshall, 14 Hosea Gear, 13 Charlie Ngatai, 12 Anton Lienert-Brown, 11 Bryce Heem, 10 Damian McKenzie, 9 Augustine Pulu, 8 Michael Leitch, 7 Sam Cane, 6 Liam Messam (captain), 5 Johan Bardoul, 4 Michael Fitzgerald/Ross Filipo, 3 Ben Tameifuna, 2 Hika Elliot, 1 Mitchell Graham

Substitutes: 16 Quentin MacDonald, 17 Siate Tokolahi, 18 Pauliasi Manu, 19 Brian Alainu'uese, 20 Maama Vaipulu, 21 Brad Weber, 22 Andrew Horrell, 23 Tim Nanai-Williams

Bulls

15 Jesse Kriel, 14 Francois Hougaard, 13 JJ Engelbrecht, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Rudy Paige, 8 Pierre Spies (captain), 7 Jacques du Plessis, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Flip van de Merwe, 3 Marcel van der Merwe, 2 Callie Visagie, 1 Trevor Nyakane

Substitutes: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Dean Greyling, 18 Werner Kruger, 19 Arno Botha, 20 Lappies Labuschagne, 21 Burger Odendaal, 22 Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 23 Travis Ismaiel

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