Publications
Partners
Cape Town - Bulls coach Frans Ludeke is confident in back-up hooker Callie Visagie’s abilities as they prepare to face the Chiefs in a Super Rugby clash in Rotorua on Friday (kick-off 09:35 SA time).
Ludeke for the first time this season named Visagie as starting hooker in his team.
Visagie moves from the bench and replaces Adriaan Strauss for this Super Rugby clash, with Jaco Visagie replacing his namesake on the bench. Jaco Visagie earned his first cap against the Reds earlier in the campaign.
Strauss, who has started in all the team's matches this year, is rested according to the SARU agreement.
Ludeke also made two changes in his loose trio, with Jacques du Plessis and Deon Stegmann starting after playing off the bench against the Blues, and Arno Botha and Lappies Labuschagne this time tasked to provide spark as impact players.
"We are up against a very formidable side and will have to play much better than last weekend. We did not execute the way we wanted against the Blues and the Chiefs will pose even more questions to our defence and attack. So we have to start well and finish well," said Ludeke.
"I have a lot of faith in Callie's abilities and I am confident that he will perform well. He is an experienced campaigner with close to 50 Super matches under the belt."
Teams:
Chiefs:
TBA
Bulls:
15 Jesse Kriel, 14 Francois Hougaard, 13 JJ Engelbrecht, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Rudy Paige, 8 Pierre Spies (captain), 7 Jacques du Plessis, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Flip van de Merwe, 3 Marcel van der Merwe, 2 Callie Visagie, 1 Trevor Nyakane
Substitutes: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Dean Greyling, 18 Werner Kruger, 19 Arno Botha, 20 Lappies Labuschagne, 21 Burger Odendaal, 22 Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 23 Travis Ismaiel
