Bulls 'rotate' scrumhalves again
TEAM ANNOUNCEMENT: Bulls coach Pote Human has been forced into a few changes to his team for the opening match on the New Zealand leg of their Australasian tour.
The Bulls face the Blues in a Round 16 Super Rugby match in Auckland on Friday.
However, the most significant change is at scrumhalf, where the Bulls are rotating again.
Human named Ivan van Zyl at scrumhalf.
Van Zyl takes over from Andre Warner, who drop down to the replacement bench – with Embrose Papier dropping out of the matchday 23.
Marco comes in at flank for Paul Schoeman, who moves to No.8 in the place of Duane Vermeulen.
The Springbok No.8, Vermeulen, returned to South Africa as part of the SA Rugby agreement with contracted Springboks and their franchises.
Jason Jenkins will don the blue jersey for the 50th time.
With Handré Pollard and Duane Vermeulen back home in SA, Burger Odendaal will take over the captaincy.
Bulls: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Cornal Hendricks, 13 John-Ben Kotze, 12 Burger Odendaal (captain), 11 Rosko Specman, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Ivan van Zyl, 8 Paul Schoeman, 7 Hanro Liebenberg, 6 Marco van Staden, 5 Rudolph Snyman, 4 Jason Jenkins, 3 Trevor Nyakane, 2 Schalk Brits, 1 Lizo Gqoboka.
Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Simphiwe Matanzima, 18 Wiehahn Herbst, 19 Jannes Kirsten, 20 Ruan Steenkamp, 21 Andre Warner, 22 John Jackson, 23 Divan Rossouw.
Date: Friday, May 31
Venue: Eden Park, Auckland
Kick-off: 19.35 (09.35 SA time; 07.35 GMT)
Referee: Mike Fraser (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Brendon Pickerill (New Zealand), Dan Waenga (New Zealand)
TMO: Ben Skeen (New Zealand)
