Bulls rush Potgieter straight in
Bulls coach Frans Ludeke wasted no time in riushing back Springbok loose forward Dewald Potgieter, ahead of their Super Rugby crunch match against the Sharks.
Potgieter, who is on loan from his Japanses club, will start at No.8 ahead of Jono Ross for the all-South African derby at Loftus versfeld on Saturday.
Ross moves the bench, with Jacques Engelbrecht dropping out of the matchday 23.
Ludeke also named Sampie Mastriet on the wing.
Mastriet comes into the team in place of Akona Ndungane – who is on compasionate leave- after a highly productive stint with the South African Sevens team.
"We have always maintained that you need a squad to win this competition and I am pretty pleased about the depth we have in ours," Ludeke said.
"Sampie has shown tremendous form with the Springbok Sevens team and brings a lot of pace into the backline and Dewald has Test experience on top of being part of our system for many years.
"It is very pleasing to have them in the squad."
* Meanwhile Victor Matfield will extend his South African record for Super Rugby appearances in the competition.
Bulls: 15 Jurgen Visser, 14 Sampie Mastriet, 13 JJ Engelbrecht, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Dewald Potgieter, 7 Jacques du Plessis, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Flip van der Merwe (captain), 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Callie Visagie, 1 Dean Greyling.
Replacements: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Morné Mellett, 18 Marcel van der Merwe, 19 Paul Willemse, 20 Jono Ross, 21 Piet van Zyl, 22 Handré Pollard, 23 Ulrich Beyers.
Date: Saturday, March 22
Venue: Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria
Kick-off: 19.10 (17.10 GMT)
Referee: Mike Fraser (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Craig Joubert (South Africa), Jaco van Heerden (South Africa)
TMO: Deon van Blommenstein (South Africa)
