Stormers to wrap Boks in cotton wool for Bulls friendly

Cape Town - Stormers coach Robbie Fleck is likely to rest his star Springboks for Sunday's pre-season game against the Bulls at Cape Town Stadium.

"We'll utilise some of the Springboks who were on the year-end tour, but the guys who played a lot of rugby there need two more weeks of conditioning," Fleck told Netwerk24 after a young Stormers outfit played halves against False Bay RFC and a Combined Club XV in Constantia over the weekend.

This probably means that the likes of Siya Kolisi, Eben Etzebeth, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Frans Malherbe, Steven Kitshoff and Damian de Allende will not be in action this weekend.

Meanwhile, Bulls coach Pote Human indicated that he'll be looking to play his Springboks in Sunday's encounter.

Human told SuperSport.com that the new acquisitions of Duane Vermeulen and Schalk Brits, as well as the Bulls' other Springboks Handre Pollard, Jesse Kriel, RG Snyman, Jason Jenkins, Trevor Nyakane, Embrose Papier and Warrick Gelant will all get game time in the festival match.

Vermeulen arrived in Pretoria last week and hasn't been part of the Bulls' pre-season training.

"I want to give all the Boks opportunities to start playing, because there are only two games left before the Stormers (the Bulls open their Super Rugby campaign at home against the Stormers on February 16), and we can look at the guys coming back from Japan and see what their fitness is," Human said after the pre-season 21-17 win over the Lions over the weekend.

Sunday's festivities at Cape Town Stadium will also see the Lions tackle the Sharks. It will be the first public appearance of the new-look superhero jerseys, which will serve as the strips for the South African derbies in this year's Super Rugby competition.