Boks rushed into Bulls' herd
Wed, 08 Sep 2010 14:04
Match winner: Francois Hougaard scores for the Bulls.
Blue Bulls coach Frans Ludeke wasted no time in drafting all his available Springboks into the team for Saturday's Currie Cup crunch match against the Free State Cheetahs.
Francois Hougaard, Chiliboy Ralepelle and Flip van der Merwe will all three start for the Bulls in Bloemfontein.
The trio featured ion the Boks' heart-breaking 39-41 loss to the Wallabies in the same city last Saturday, but will be looking to erase those unhappy memories when they don the light blue shirt with the Barberton daisy on the chest.
In all the Bulls coach, Ludeke, made six changes to the starting line-up that conquered the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld last weekend.
Hougaard replaces Ruan Snyman at scrumhalf, Van der Merwe comes in for Fudge Mabeta at lock and Ralepelle is at hooker in place of Bandise Maku.
The other changes will be at centre, where Stefan Watermeyer replaces Wynand Olivier (one of the contracted Boks ruled out for the next month), CJ Stander comes in for injured Dewald Potgieter on the flank and Werner Kruger returns at tighthead prop ahead of Frik Kirsten.
The bench also see some changes, with Gary Botha back after his knee injury, Okkie Kruger coming in for Stander and Stephan Dippenaar for Watermeyer.
Ludeke said it is great having some of his international players back.
"All three will have to make a significant contribution to our effort and we are keen to have them back in the team," Ludeke said.
"Matches against the Cheetahs are always very tight and we will focus on the small battles.
"If we dominate that, we will put ourselves in a good position to win the match."
Blue Bulls: 15 Zane Kirchner, 14 Gerhard van den Heever, 13 Jaco Pretorius, 12 Stefan Watermeyer, 11 Jaco van der Westhuyzen, 10 Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Gerrit-Jan van Velze, 7 CJ Stander, 6 Derick Kuün (captain), 5 Juandré Kruger, 4 Flip van
der Merwe, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Chiliboy Ralepelle, 1 Dean Greyling.
Replacements: 16 Gary Botha, 17 Rossouw de Klerk, 18 Jaco Engels, 19 Wilhelm Steenkamp, 20 Okkie Kruger, 21 Dustin Jinka, 22 Stephan Dippenaar.
Date: Saturday, September 11
Venue: Vodacom Park, Bloemfontein
Kick-off: 17.05 (15.05 GMT)
Referee: Jason Jaftha
Assistant referees: Mlungiseli Mdashe, Reuben Rossouw
TMO: Shaun Veldsman
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