Visagie in starting role for Bulls

 

Visagie moves from the bench and replaces Adriaan Strauss with Jaco Visagie replacing his namesake on the bench.

 

Strauss, who has started in all the team's matches this year, is rested according to the SARU agreement.

 

Coach Frans Ludeke also made two changes in his loose trio, with Jacques du Plessis and Deon Stegmann starting after playing off the bench against the Blues, and Arno Botha and Pieter Labuschagne this time tasked to provide spark as impact players.

 

The confirmation on Monday that Rudy Paige and Francois Hougaard were cleared fit, after suffering blows against the Blues in Auckland, see the duo retain their places in the Bulls starting line-up.

 

"We are up against a very formidable side and will have to play much better than last weekend," said Ludeke.

 

"We did not execute the way we wanted against the Blues and the Chiefs will pose even more questions to our defence and attack. 

 

"So we have to start well and finish well.

 

"I have a lot of faith in Callie's [Visagie] abilities and I am confident that he will perform well. He is an experienced campaigner with close to 50 Super matches under the belt."

 

Bulls: 15 Jesse Kriel, 14 Francois Hougaard, 13 JJ Engelbrecht, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Rudy Paige, 8 Pierre Spies (captain), 7 Jacques du Plessis, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Flip van de Merwe, 3 Marcel van der Merwe, 2 Callie Visagie, 1 Trevor Nyakane.

Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Dean Greyling, 18 Arno Botha, 19 Pieter Labuschagne, 20 Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 21 Burger Odendaal, 22 Travis Ismaiel, 23 Werner Kruger.

 

Date: Friday, May 22

Venue: Rotorua International Stadium, Rotorua

Kick-off: 19.35 (09.35 SA time; 07.35 GMT)

Referee: Chris Pollock (New Zealand)

Assistant referees: Glen Jackson (New Zealand), Aki Aso (Japan)

TMO: Glenn Newman (New Zealand)