Fouche starts at flyhalf for Bulls

Pretoria - Blue Bulls coach Nollis Marais named flyhalf Louis Fouche in his starting team to face Western Province in Cape Town on Friday (19:00 kick-off).

The inclusion of Fouche, who swaps places with Tian Swanepoel, is one of three similar tweaks Marais made following last weekend's home defeat to the Golden Lions.

The other tweaks see Burger Odendaal swapping places with Jan Serfontein in the midfield and Deon Stegmann replacing Arno Botha, who moves to the bench. Stegmann is included as a flank though, with captain Lappies Labuschagne moving to No 8, where Botha started last weekend.

In the other change, Pierre Schoeman was named at loosehead prop, with Dean Greyling dropping out of the match-day squad.

"We needed to make some small adjustments as we will approach the WP match different from the one against the Lions last weekend. I have brought in Louis, Burger and Deon for a particular reason, while I think Pierre will front up come scrum time. We need to be competitive in the scrums if we want to get a result against WP, so I made a change," said Marais.

Labuschagne is happy with the switch to the back of the scrum.

"For us to beat WP, we will have to play well as individuals as well as combinations. I think the loose trio are all capable of slotting into any of the three positions, so we should really complement each other well. Defence will probably have to win this for us, as WP remains the most attacking team in the competition," said Labuschagne.

"We have some serious players on the bench as well, which will be important. This will take a 23 man effort to go down to Newlands and beat WP."

Teams:

Western Province:

15. Cheslin Kolbe, 14. Dillyn Leyds, 13. Johnny Kotze, 12. Huw Jones, 11. Seabelo Senatla, 10. Robert du Preez, 9. Nic Groom (captain), 8. Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 7. Rynhardt Elstadt, 6. Chris Cloete, 5. Ruan Botha, 4. Jean Kleyn, 3. Wilco Louw, 2. Bongi Mbonambi, 1. Steven Kitshoff

Substitutes: 16. Scarra Ntubeni, 17. Oli Kebble, 18. Chris van Zyl, 19. Nizaam Carr, 20. Jano Vermaak, 21. Demetri Catrakilis, 22. Kobus van Wyk

Blue Bulls:

15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Travis Ismaiel, 13 Dries Swanepoel, 12 Burger Odendaal, 11 Jamba Ulengo, 10 Louis Fouche, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Lappies Labuschagne (captain), 7 Roelof Smit, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Jacques du Plessis, 3 Marcel van der, 2 Bandise Maku, 1 Pierre Schoeman

Substitutes: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Werner Kruger, 18 RG Snyman, 19 Arno Botha, 20 Ivan van Zyl, 21 Tian Schoeman, 22 Jan Serfontein