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Cape Town - The Bulls may be going into Saturday's crucial Super Rugby clash against the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein without new signing Lood de Jager, but they have a familiar feel to their second row nonetheless.
De Jager is recovering from a concussion he picked up against the Stormers in Cape Town in week one and the Bulls have turned to 21-year-old Jason Jenkins as his replacement.
It re-united Jenkins with RG Snyman in a second row that Bulls fans saw a lot of last year.
Losing a player of De Jager's quality will always be a loss, but Bulls coach Nollis Marais has a lot of faith in Jenkins.
"They're big mates," he said of Jenkins and Snyman.
"I still think Jason should be in that Springbok training squad."
Marais was referring to a 41-man Bok training squad that was named this week. Snyman was included in that squad.
"He's 21, the same as RG, and I think he has huge potential," Marais added.
"He played well when he come on at the weekend (against the Stormers) and I'm happy with the combination.
"Jason is an excellent rugby player."
Marais said the quality of locks in South Africa at the moment was impressive.
"They're (Jenkins and Snyman) going to be huge potentials for South African rugby," said the coach.
"I think they will maybe play in that SA 'A' squad in the middle of the year. We need to play them to develop them ... it's good for South African rugby.
"Pieter-Steph (Du Toit) and Eben (Etzebeth) showed this weekend how good they are and we've got RG, Lood and Jason ... that's a lot of guys with a lot of potential in South African rugby."
Saturday's clash kicks off at 19:30.
Teams:
Cheetahs
15 Clayton Blommetjies, 14 Ryno Benjamin, 13 Nico Lee, 12 Clinton Swart, 11 Raymond Rhule, 10 Fred Zeilinga, 9 Tian Meyer, 8 Paul Schoeman, 7 Oupa Mohoje, 6 Uzair Cassiem, 5 Reniel Hugo, 4 Justin Basson, 3 Johan Coetzee, 2 Torsten van Jaarsveld (captain), 1 Ox Nche
Substitutes: 16 Elandre Huggett, 17 Charles Marais, 18 Danie Mienie, 19 Francois Uys, 20 Niell Jordaan, 21 Zee Mkhabela, 22 Niel Marais, 23 Ruan van Rensburg
Bulls
15 Jesse Kriel, 14 Travis Ismaiel, 13 Dries Swanepoel, 12 Burger Odendaal, 11 Jamba Ulengo, 10 Handre Pollard (captain), 9 Rudy Paige, 8 Hanro Liebenberg, 7 Jacques Potgieter, 6 Nic de Jager, 5 RG Snyman, 4 Jason Jenkins, 3 Trevor Nyakane, 2 Jaco Visagie, 1 Lizo Gqoboka
Substitutes: 16 Edgar Marutlulle, 17 Pierre Schoeman, 18 Jacobie Adriaanse, 19 Renaldo Bothma, 20 Ruan Steenkamp, 21 Piet van Zyl, 22 Tian Schoeman, 23 Warrick Gelant
