Potgieter out; Stander in
Flyhalf Joshua Stander will earn a first senior start for the Blue Bulls in their Currie Cup encounter with Western Province in Pretoria on Saturday.
The 20-year-old former Queen's College player was bracketed with Jacques-Louis Potgieter, who failed a fitness test on Friday.
Stander has played for the Blue Bulls Under-21 side in the domestic age-group competition this season and was an unused replacement in the victory against the Eastern Province Kings last weekend.
Stander will be one of four changes, announced earlier this week, from the side that beat the Kings.
The flyhalf will come in for Tony Jantjies (concussion), while Piet van Zyl (for Rudy Paige – bench), Callie Visagie (for Bongi Mbonambi – bench) and Werner Kruger (for Marcel van der Merwe – Springbok call-up) will return to the run-on team.
On the bench, Tian Schoeman (for Stander) and Ryan Nell (for Ulrich Beyers) could make their Currie Cup debuts.
Blue Bulls – revised: 15 Jesse Kriel, 14 Akona Ndungane, 13 William Small-Smith, 12 Burger Odendaal, 11 Sampie Mastriet, 10 Joshua Stander, 9 Piet van Zyl, 8 Jono Ross, 7 Jacques du Plessis, 6 Deon Stegmann (captain), 5 Grant Hattingh, 4 Paul Willemse, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Callie Visagie, 1 Dean Greyling.
Replacements: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Hencus van Wyk, 18 Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg, 19 Jacques Engelbrecht, 20 Rudy Paige, 21 Tian Schoeman, 22 Ryan Nell.
Date: Saturday, August 30
Venue: Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria
Kick-off: 17.05 (15.05 GMT)
Referee: Craig Joubert
Assistant referees: Rasta Rasivhenge, Cobus Wessels
TMO: Willie Vos
