Debut for speedster in the Bulls jersey
TEAM ANNOUNCEMENT: Sergeal Petersen has been handed his official Bulls debut in round three of the United Rugby Championship when they face Zebre Parma at Stadio Lanfranchi on Friday.
Petersen got a pre-season run against Namibia’s Welwitschias and this weekend will start at wing.
Director of Rugby Jake White said Petersen’s experience and versatility is an added advantage for the Tshwane outfit.
“We rate Sergeal highly, that is why we brought him into our setup. We know what he offers our squad and he has a lot more experience that some of our outside backs.
“He has pace, he is really quick and he can play at fullback so I am quite keen to see how he adapts playing with this back three. He understands fullback play as well so it will be good to have a wing that can play fullback and that is something we look forward to having for the coming seasons,” White said.
He has made a number of changes as he rotates his squad to manage player load.
Wilco Louw is retained at front row and this week he will have Simphiwe Matanzima and Akker van der Merwe serving alongside him upfront.
Co-captain Ruan Nortje will pair up with Janko Swanepoel as this week’s lock combination with Marcell Coetzee at blind-side, Elrigh Louw packs down at open-side flank and Cameron Hanekom at eight, completing the forwards pack in an unchanged back row.
Zak Burger starts at scrumhalf combining with flyhalf Johan Goosen as the halfback duo to conduct traffic in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region.
Behind the Burger-Goosen partnership will be David Kriel at inside centre alongside Stedman Gans on his outside whilst Devon Williams is retained at fullback. On the wings will be Petersen and Sebastian de Klerk.
The run of new combinations this week sees Johan Grobbelaar slot into the impact squad alongside Dylan Smith who is set for his first run in blue this season.
Mornay Smith, Reinhardt Ludwig, Nizaam Carr, Embrose Papier, Chris Smith and Wandisile Simelane complete the 5-3 split of fresh legs.
“We expect Zebre to score a lot of points, they scored 36 in the opening match and scored 36 in their second too, so they score a lot of tries. We expect a tough game and for them to test our defence really hard.
“Zebre were in both their opening games till the death. This Zebre side came close against Ulster and they were in it against Ospreys so we know they will be tough opponents for sure. They were a scrum away from the match against Ulster and they just just lost it against Ospreys, so there are no easy games.
“Zebre, with the make-up of their squad, probably have the least number of internationals and that means they have the least amount of disruptions which makes them hard to come up against at the start of a season.
“We know this is a tough competition and so we want to make sure we have depth in all roles but complacency is not a concern for us.”
Bulls: 15 Devon Williams, 14 Sebastian de Klerk, 13 Stedman Gans, 12 David Kriel, 11 Sergeal Petersen, 10 Johan Goosen, 9 Zak Burger, 8 Cameron Hanekom, 7 Elrigh Louw, 6 Marcell Coetzee (captain), 5 Ruan Nortje (c), 4 Janko Swanepoel, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Akker van der Merwe, 1 Simphiwe Matanzima
Replacements: 16 Johan Grobbelaar, 17 Dylan Smith, 18 Mornay Smith, 19 Reinhardt Ludwig, 20 Nizaam Carr, 21 Embrose Papier, 22 Chris Smith, 23 Wandisile Simelane
Date: Friday, November 3
Venue: Stadio Lanfranchi, Parma
Kick-off: 14.00 (13.00 GMT; 15.00 SA time)
Referee: Frank Murphy (Ireland)
Assistant Referees: Clara Munarini (Italy) and Manuel Bottino (Italy)
TMO: Olly Hodges (Ireland)
