Publications
Partners
Pretoria - Blue Bulls executive of rugby John Mitchell named an unchanged starting XV for their Currie Cup clash against the Free State Cheetahs in Bloemfontein on Friday (18:00 kick-off).
There is only one change to the bench from the squad that lost 46-45 at home to Western Province last Sunday, with Matthys Basson replacing Dayan van der Westhuizen as back-up prop.
This is the first time Mitchell was able to name the same starting team since taking over the reins and the coach was understandably happy with the continuity.
"We are starting to find our feet now and this will help yes," Mitchell said.
"I thought we were desperately unlucky not to get the result against a very strong WP side last weekend, but the challenge will be for us to regroup and make sure our confidence levels are up for the Bloemfontein clash. It is an important match for us, as we need to show more improvement and progress. The hard work is slowly paying off and now the processes and results must start coming together."
Blue Bulls captain Burger Odendaal said the team was keen to play.
Last weekend, despite the result, was a huge boost for us as we are getting more and more competitive every week and the progress and belief is getting better every week. That is very pleasing from a squad perspective and we are slowly but surely getting on the same page. That is very exciting to be part of," Odendaal said.
Teams:
Free State Cheetahs
15 Clayton Blommetjies, 14 JW Jonker, 13 Ali Mgijima, 12 Lloyd Greeff, 11 Vuyani Maqina, 10 Robbie Petzer, 9 Zee Mkhabela, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Nicolaas Immelman, 6 Chris Dry (captain), 5 Carl Wegner, 4 Dennis Visser, 3 Luan de Bruin, 2 Reinach Venter, 1 Johan Kotze
Substitutes: 16 Joseph Dweba, 17 Gunther Janse van Vuuren, 18 Andrew Kuhn, 19 Jeremy Jordaan, 20 Daniel Maartens, 21 JP Smith, 22 Stephan Janse van Rensburg
Blue Bulls
15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Duncan Matthews, 13 Burger Odendaal (captain), 12 JT Jackson, 11 Johnny Kotze, 10 Marnitz Boshoff, 9 Ivan van Zyl, 8 Nic de Jager, 7 Tim Agaba, 6 Marco van Staden, 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 Aston Fortuin, 3 Conraad van Vuuren, 2 Edgar Marutlulle, 1 Pierre Schoeman
Substitutes: 16 Johan Grobbelaar, 17 Matthys Basson, 18 Jano Venter, 19 Boom Prinsloo, 20 Piet van Zyl, 21 Tony Jantjies, 22 Ulrich Beyers
