Pumas to make home comforts count
Pumas coach Jimmy Stonehouse has made four changes to his starting line-up for their clash with the Cheetahs on Friday which will be their final home game of the Currie Cup season.
Stonehouse was very disappointed with his side’s meek submission to the Blue Bulls last week and has changed two of his inside backs while he has been forced to call on an entirely new lock combination due to injuries.
Carl Bezuidenhout gets an opportunity to play at flyhalf in Witbank ahead of Coenie van Wyk who drops to the bench and Dewald Pretorius will run out at inside centre in place of Siviwe Magaba who joins Van Wyk on the bench.
Big lock Marius Coetzer has been ruled out of action with a dislocated shoulder and joins second row partner Willem Serfontein on the sidelines. Eduan van der Walt and JP Mostert come into the starting XV to replace them and Stonehouse will look to them to take control in the line-outs, which was an area of weakness at Loftus Versfeld last week.
“We did not have a good game against the Bulls but we will be better on Friday. We had a look at the video and we know where we need to improve. We missed far too many tackles and line-outs, so we will be focusing on those areas,” said Stonehouse.
The Pumas boss said that despite their disappointing results he felt that his team has played some good rugby this season and added that they would be determined to make the home advantage count against the Cheetahs.
Pumas: 15 MJ Mentz, 14 Wilhelm Loock, 13 JW Jonker, 12 Dewald Pretorius, 11 Johan Jackson, 10 Carl Bezuidenhout, 9 Shaun Venter, 8 Christo le Roux, 7 Jaco Bouwer, 6 Corné Steenkamp (captain), 5 Eduan van der Walt, 4 JP Mostert, 3 Ashley Buys, 2 Pellow van der Westhuizen, 1 Dawie Steyn.
Replacements: 16 Brett Nel, 17 Michael de Neuilly-Rice, 18 RW Kember, 19 Nico Mostert, 20 Hendrik van der Nest, 21 Coenie van Wyk, 22 Siviwe Magaba.
Date: Friday, October 7
Kick-off: 19.10 (17.10 GMT)
Venue: Puma Stadium, Witbank
Referee: Sindile Mayende
Assistant referees: Christie du Preez, Phillip Bosch
TMO: Gerrie Coetzee
