Cape Town - Cheetahs coach Franco Smith has announced his team to take on the Southern Kings in a Super Rugby warm-up match in Port Elizabeth on Friday evening (19:00 kick-off).
Smith has included Springbok lock Lood de Jager in his starting team for the first time this year.
De Jager replaces Reniel Hugo, who captained the Cheetahs in their 28-10 victory over the Bulls in Harare over the weekend.
Centre Francois Venter, who will lead the Cheetahs in this year’s Super Rugby competition, will start in midfield having played off the bench last week.
Teams:
Kings:
15 Jurgen Visser, 14 Luzuko Vulundlu, 13 Stefan Watermeyer, 12 Shane Gates, 11 Malcolm Jaer, 10 Elgar Watts, 9 Ntando Kebe, 8 Jacques Engelbrecht, 7 Thembelani Bholi, 6 Chris Cloete, 5 JC Astle, 4 Steven Sykes (captain), 3 Tom Botha, 2 Martin Bezuidenhout, 1 Schalk Ferreira
Substitutes: 16 Sti Sithole, 17 Martin Ferreira, 18 Vukile Sofisa, 19 Cornell Hess, 20 CJ Velleman, 21 Stephan Willemse, 22 Junior Pokomela, 23 Leighton Eksteen, 24 Theuns Kotze, 25 JP du Plessis, 26 Siyanda Grey
Cheetahs:
15 Sergeal Petersen, 14 Maphutha Dolo, 13 Francois Venter (captain), 12 William Small-Smith, 11 Raymond Rhule, 10 Sias Ebersohn, 9 Shaun Venter, 8 Niell Jordaan, 7 Uzair Cassiem, 6 Boom Prinsloo, 5 Lodewyk de Jager, 4 Carl Wegner, 3 Maks van Dyk, 2 Torsten van Jaarsveld, 1 Charles Marais.
Substitutes: 16 Jacques du Toit, 17 Danie Mienie, 18 Luan de Bruin, 19 Reniel Hugo, 20 Hilton Lobberts, 21 Paul Schoeman, 22 Henco Venter, 23 Tian Meyer, 24 Fred Zeilinga, 25 Michael van der Spuy, 26 Clayton Blommetjies