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Serfontein set for Bulls milestone

Cape Town - Bulls midfielder, Jan Serfontein, will make a 50th appearance for his team when they tackle the Blues in a Super Rugby match in North Harbour on Saturday.

The midfielder, who made a strong return to Super Rugby last weekend with a brace of tries against the Sunwolves, will move to inside centre for this match after starting in the No 13 jersey last weekend. He will combine with Jesse Kriel in this first tour match in New Zealand.

Serfontein scored two tries for the Bulls in their last appearance against the Blues in New Zealand and along with Jesse Kriel, Handre Pollard, Adriaan Strauss and Trevor Nyakane are the only players in the team who also started in their last match against the Blues in 2015.

Nyakane was at loosehead that day and Kriel played fullback.

Kriel’s inclusion is the only change to the starting backline from the Sunwolves clash, but amongst the forwards, coach Nollis Marais included regular captain, Adriaan Strauss, who will not only take the No 2 jersey from Edgar Marutllule, but also the captaincy from Pollard.

The coach also swapped around Lizo Gqoboko and Pierre Schoeman as per rotation policy and included Nick de Jager on flank in place of suspended Renaldo Bothma.

The bench will see five changes.

Jaco Visagie (for Strauss, with Marutlulle dropping out), Schoeman (Gqoboka), Rudy Paige (for Ivan van Zyl) and Odendaal (Kriel) are all new to the weekend’s bench.

A potential debutant for the Bulls is John-Roy Jenkinson, who takes over from Jacobie Adriaanse. It could be a first Super Rugby appearance for the former Junior Springboks prop, who earned more than 40 provincial caps for the Leopards while completing his studies at NWU-Pukke.

Saturday’s clash is scheduled for 08:35 (SA time).

Teams:

Blues

15 Michael Collins, 14 Matt Duffie, 13 Rieko Ioane, 12 George Moala, 11 Melani Nanai, 10 Piers Francis, 9 Augustine Pulu, 8 Jerome Kaino, 7 Blake Gibson, 6 Jimmy Tupou, 5 Patrick Tuipulotu, 4 Gerard Cowley-Tuioti, 3 Charlie Faumuina, 2 James Parsons (captain), 1 Pauliasi Manu

Substitutes: 16 Matt Moulds, 17 Ofa Tu'ungafasi, 18 Sione Mafileo, 19 Akira Ioane, 20 Murphy Taramai, 21 Sam Nock, 22 Ihaia West, 23 TJ Faiane

Bulls

15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Travis Ismaiel, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Jamba Ulengo, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Piet van Zyl, 8 Hanro Liebenberg, 7 Nick de Jager, 6 Ruan Steenkamp, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Jason Jenkins, 3 Trevor Nyakane, 2 Adriaan Strauss (captain), 1 Lizo Gqoboko

Substitutes: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Pierre Schoeman, 18 RG Snyman, 19 Jannes Kirsten, 20 Rudy Paige, 21 Tian Schoeman, 22 Burger Odendaal, 23 John-Roy Jenkinson

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