CAPE TOWN - Jake White is still mixing and matching his Bulls team at this stage of the season, but has chosen some big guns in his starting line-up for Friday’s preparation match against the Stormers at Loftus Versfeld (7pm kickoff).
Three Springboks in Trevor Nyakane, Marco van Staden and Cornal Hendricks are back in the run-on XV, while another Bok in Nizaam Carr will retain the captaincy against his former team. Veteran flyhalf Morné Steyn is another Test player who will come off the bench.
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But there are a number of interesting selections as well, with Richard Kriel replacing his older brother and regular starter David at fullback, while Marco Jansen van Vuren shifts to wing from centre.
New signing Zak Burger, the former Griquas captain, gets his first opportunity in a light-blue jersey, while former SA Schools loose forward Werner Gouws will look to make a name for himself at blindside flank.
White added that he would’ve picked more seniors, but the likes of Duane Vermeulen, Stravino Jacobs, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Lizo Gqoboka are not available, along with long-term injury cases Gio Aplon and Travis Ismaiel.
“The important thing is to give them some game time. A lot of them haven’t played since the final, and the ones that I haven’t got is because I don’t have them available yet as some of them have had surgery – guys like Duane, Elrigh Louw, Ivan van Zyl, Stravino Jacobs,” White said during a press conference on Thursday.
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“Kurt-Lee is still with the sevens, and Lizo has got to go to a funeral tomorrow in the Eastern Cape. It isn’t ideal as I would’ve liked to have played a few more of them this weekend, but as it stands, it’s nice to get a balance between some of the younger and old guys.”
Richard Kriel has had to be content with junior rugby up to now, and watched David secure the No 15 jersey last season. But now he gets his opportunity to impress White.
#BullsFamily here is your team to take on the DHL Stormers at Loftus tomorrow evening 💪
Comment below with your score predictions 👇#TrueToTheBlue pic.twitter.com/72zfWP2Gzo
“Richard Kriel had a jaw injury at the end of the Under-21 competition, so he was out for a while. I haven’t seen much of him, to be fair – I watched him a little bit in the Under-21s,” the former Bok coach said.
“He obviously comes with a massive reputation as a junior, so I’d like to put him in this combination. We know what we can get from David – David’s been outstanding. In fact, David has run something like 270km this season. He has played almost every game 80 minutes, so I thought rather than putting him on the bench, I gave him complete time off, and his brother Richard gets a chance to play.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how the younger brother actually takes his chance.”
Bulls
15 Richard Kriel 14 Madosh Tambwe 13 Stedman Gans 12 Cornal Hendricks 11 Marco Jansen van Vuren 10 Chris Smith 9 Zak Burger 8 Nizaam Carr (captain) 7 Werner Gouws 6 Marco van Staden 5 Ruan Nortje 4 Janko Swanepoel 3 Trevor Nyakane 2 Joe van Zyl 1 Gerhard Steenekamp.
Bench: 16 Johan Grobbelaar 17 Jan-Hendrik Wessels 18 Jacques van Rooyen 19 Jan Uys 20 Tim Agaba 21 Keagan Johannes 22 Morné Steyn 23 Diego Appollis 24 Nolan Pienaar 25 Raynard Roets 26 Marnus Potgieter.