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Bulls start Mastriet, Potgieter

Pretoria - Bulls coach Frans Ludeke named Sampie Mastriet on the wing and Dewald Potgieter at No 8 in his team to play the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

Both players will make their first appearance in theSuper Rugby tournament this year.

Mastriet comes into the team in place of Akona Ndungane after a highly productive stint with the Springbok Sevens team and Potgieter joined up with the team following a season with his Japanese club Yamaha Jubilo and will take the place of Jono Ross.

Ndungane is still on compassionate leave following the passing of his father last week, whilst Ludeke opted for the 66 Super Rugby caps experience of Potgieter at the base of the scrum.

Ross moves the bench, with Jacques Engelbrecht missing out in the only other change to the match 23.

"We have always maintained that you need a squad to win this competition and I am pretty please about the depth we have in ours," said Ludeke.

"Sampie has shown tremendous form with the Springbok Sevens team and brings a lot of pace into the backline and Dewald has Test match experience on top of being part of our system for many years. It is very pleasing to have them in the squad."

Bulls captain Flip van der Merwe said the recent upsurge in form is something the team is keen to continue with.

"Our first two away outings were pretty disappointing and everyone stepped up after that. We are keen to continue with the positive way we performed against the Lions and Blues. The Sharks are not topping the log for nothing, but we have prepared well for this one. We will be ready," Van der Merwe said.

Kick-off is at 19:10 on Saturday.

Teams:

Bulls:

15 Jurgen Visser, 14 Sampie Mastriet, 13 J J Engelbrecht, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Dewald Potgieter, 7 Jacques du Plessis, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Flip vd Merwe (captain), 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Callie Visagie, 1 Dean Greyling

Substitutes: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Marcel vd Merwe, 18 Paul Willemse, 19 Jono Ross, 20 Piet van Zyl, 21 Handré Pollard, 22 Ulrich Beyers, 23 Morné Mellet

Sharks:

TBA
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