Marais tweaks Bulls' backline
Springbok centre Jan Serfontein moves into the starting XV in place of Dries Swanepoel at outside centre while his schoolboy centre partner moves to the bench.
Marais has also switched up his pivots with Tian Schoeman moving from the bench to claim the No.10 jersey while Louis Fouché drops down to the reserves.
Influential leaders Pieter Labuschagne will play in his 50th Currie Cup match when he runs on and the flank reverts back to the side of the scrum due to the wrist injury to Roelof Smit, with Arno Botha, who started on the bench against Western Province last week, back in the No.8 jersey.
This is the only change to the pack made with the two rotational switches in the backline.
Ruan Steenkamp is on the bench for Botha, in what could be a Blue Bulls and Currie Cup debut, should the former Junior Springbok captain take to the field.
"I feel for Roelof who will miss this match, as he has played very well over the last couple of weeks," Marais said.
"That said, Arno is a Springbok and coming back to his best after a long time out of the game and I predict a strong game from him."
Marais tweaked his inside backs with the Sharks game-play in mind.
"We wanted to play a particular way in Cape Town and selected a team accordingly. The same applies with this match in Durban. We need to get back into a winning rhythm again and I believe this team will be able to take us there," he added.
Labuschagne isn't worried about his milestone too much, but is rather focused on a good team performance.
"It is nice to play 50 matches in the Currie Cup. It remains one of the best competitions to be involved in, but to be honest, the team comes before that.
"We need to step up to the mark we left earlier in the season. We slipped off the pace in the last two weeks, so everyone is aware of the urgency and accuracy we need if we want to beat the Sharks in Durban," Labuschagne said.
Blue Bulls: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Travis Ismaiel, 13 Jan Serfontein, 12 Burger Odendaal, 11 Jamba Ulengo, 10 Tian Schoeman, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Arno Botha, 7 Pieter Labuschagne (captain), 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Jacques du Plessis, 3 Marcel van der Merwe, 2 Bandise Maku, 1 Pierre Schoeman.
Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Werner Kruger, 18 Rudolph Snyman, 19 Ruan Steenkamp, 20 Ivan van Zyl, 21 Louis Fouché, 22 Dries Swanepoel.
Date: Friday, September 25
Venue: Kings Park, Durban
Kick-off: 20.00 (18.00 GMT)
Referee: Marius van der Westhuizen
Assistant referees: Lourens van der Merwe, Jaco Pretorius
TMO: Marius Jonker
