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De Jager benched against 'Tahs as Venter returns

Venter suffered a calf injury last week and was a late withdrawel from the Queensland fixture and Springbok lock Lodewyk de Jager took over the captaincy duties.

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De Jager will be on the bench as part of an agreement with Saru to rest Springbok players at certain stages of the competition, while forwards Retshegofaditswe Nche, Elandre Huggett, Luan de Bruin, Francois Uys, Willie Britz and Teboho Mohoje are all included in the starting line-up.

Torsten van Jaarsveld, Charles Marais, Nicolaas van Dyk and Uzair Cassiem are on the reserve bench.

In the backline, Tian Meyer and Shaun Venter will be switching places with Venter on the bench, while captain Francois Venter is back on inside center and Michael van der Spuy moves down to the bench.

Cheetahs: 15 Clayton Blommetjies, 14 Sergeal Petersen, 13 Nico Lee, 12 Francois Venter (captain), 11 Raymond Rhule, 10 Fred Zeilinga, 9 Tian Meyer, 8 Henco Venter, 7 Teboho Mohoje, 6 Willie Britz, 5 Francois Uys, 4 Carl Wegner, 3 Luan de Bruin, 2 Elandre Huggett, 1 Retshegofaditswe Nche.

Replacements: 16 Torsten van Jaarsveld, 17 Charles Marais, 18 Maks van Dyk, 19 Lodewyk de Jager, 20 Uzair Cassiem, 21 Shaun Venter, 22 Niel Marais, 23 Michael van der Spuy.

Date: Saturday, May 7 

Venue: Allianz Stadium, Sydney

Kick-off: 19.40 (11.40 SA time; 09.40 GMT)

Referee: Nic Berry (Australia)

Assistant referees: Andrew Lees (Australia), Rohan Hoffmann (Australia)

TMO: George Ayoub (Australia)

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