Double ton for Kruger
Kruger played his 100th Super Rugby match for the Bulls in April 2014 and will become an Currie Cup centurion for the Blue Bulls when the side take on Western Province in the big north-south derby match in Pretoria on this weekend.
Kruger made his Blue Bulls debut in 2007 as a replacement against the Golden Lions and has since been one of the most consistent performers for the Loftus Versfeld-based team.
Bulls coach Nollis Marais named Kruger in the side that show three changes to the one that beat Griquas a week ago.
William Small-Smith and Deon Stegmann have been ruled out due to injury and will be replaced by Dries Swanepoel and Roelof Smit respectively.
Marais also decided to start with Bandise Maku at hooker, with Jaco Visagie swapping roles with the former Springbok and will start on the bench.
Dan Kriel will move onto the bench in place of Swanepoel.
"Werner has been a true Blue Bulls stalwart and deserves this unique honour," Marais said.
"He has a wonderful attitude towards life and towards this team and we are privileged to share such an occasion with Werner.
"That said, the ball is now in our court to make sure we make it a memorable occasion for him.
"To do that, we need to be accurate and aggressive in the way we approach WP.
"We are slowly finding our feet as a squad, but we may lack in rhythm and momentum, we must back up with courage and guts."
Blue Bulls captain Pieter Labuschagne confirmed that determination.
"We have now played together and the cobwebs are gone," Labuschagne said.
"We can now focus on our execution, precision and desire to win the Currie Cup and to give our supporters something to be proud of. This starts this weekend against WP."
Blue Bulls: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Travis Ismaiel, 13 Dries Swanepoel, 12 Burger Odendaal, 11 Jamba Ulengo, 10 Tian Schoeman, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Hanro Liebenberg, 7 Roelof Smit, 6 Pieter Labuschagne (captain), 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Jacques du Plessis, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Bandise Maku, 1 Dean Greyling.
Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Dayan van der Westhuizen, 18 Rudolph Snyman, 19 Jannes Kirsten, 20 Ivan van Zyl, 21 Louis Fouché, 22 Dan Kriel.
Date: Saturday, August 22
Venue: Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria
Kick-off: 19.10 (17.10 GMT)
Referee: Craig Joubert
Assistant referees: Jaco Pretorius, Ricus van der Hoven
TMO: Vos Willie