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Christchurch - The Cheetahs will aim to hit the road running when they play their first match of their Australasian Super Rugby tour when they face the Crusaders in Christchurch.
Springbok wing Cornal Hendricks gets a rest this week and is replaced by Clayton Blommetjies, while Tian Meyer takes over at scrumhalf from Sarel Pretorius, who stayed behind in South Africa in anticipation of the birth of his second child.
Upfront, Heinrich Brüssow makes a return at flank while Boom Prinsloo moves to the bench, where he will be joined by Shaun Venter.
Christchurch, as is the case for most South African Super Rugby teams, is not a happy hunting ground four the Cheetahs, having never tasted victory against the seven-time champions.
Cheetahs captain Francois Uys is looking forward to the tour, despite the enormous task which awaits them.
The most important thing for us as soon as we hit the road is to look at the positives and get the other things out of the way.
"It is going to be a very tough tour, but we’ll stick together as a team.
"We said we want to learn from of each game."
The men from Bloem have stumbled in recent weeks following their unbeaten start to the campaign and occupy third place in the South African conference and eleventh place overall, one below their opponents for Saturday, after four matches.
Kickoff is scheduled to take place at 08:35 (SA time) and you can catch ALL the action LIVE on Sport24.
Teams:
Crusaders
15 Israel Dagg, 14 Kieron Fonotia, 13 Ryan Crotty, 12 Dan Carter, 11 Nemani Nadolo, 10 Colin Slade, 9 Andy Ellis, 8 Kieran Read (captain), 7 Matt Todd, 6 Jordan Taufua, 5 Sam Whitelock, 4 Luke Romano, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Wyatt Crockett
Substitutes: 16 Ben Funnell, 17 Joe Moody, 18 Nepo Laulala, 19 Scott Barrett, 20 Luke Whitelock, 21 Mitchell Drummond, 22 Tom Taylor, 23 David Havili
Cheetahs
15 Willie le Roux, 14 Clayton Blommetjies, 13 Johann Sadie, 12 Francois Venter, 11 Raymond Rhule, 10 Joe Pietersen, 9 Tian Meyer, 8 Jean Cook, 7 Oupa Mohoje, 6 Heinrich Brussow, 5 Francois Uys (captain), 4 Carl Wegner, 3 Coenie Oosthuizen, 2 Torsten van Jaarsveld, 1 Danie Mienie
Substitutes: 16 Stephan Coetzee, 17 BG Uys, 18 Maks van Dyk, 19 Steven Sykes, 20 Boom Prinsloo, 21 Shaun Venter, 22 Willie du Plessis, 23 Rayno Benjamin
