All change up front for Maties
Maties boss Chean Roux has – as promised – re-jigged his forwards pack ahead of his team’s Varsity Cup meeting with FNB TUT in Stellenbosch on Monday evening (kick-off 7.30pm).
Head coach Roux has made a total of four changes to his pack, and as a result his bench too, as he looks to extend his team’s 2010 Varsity Cup record to two from two.
Jonathan Adendorf (No.7) and Sam Mabombo (No.6) will pack on the side of the Maties scrum in two of the changes, whilst Andrew Prior replaces Rynardt Elsteadt at lock and Johan Roets will wear the No.1 shirt ahead of Mike De Neuilly-Rice.
De Neuilly-Rice drops down to the bench for the defending champions; where he will be joined by new faces Andrew Crausaz, Marinus Pretorius and Johan Herbst, with Callie Visagie and Johan Laker missing out altogether.
Speaking about the changes to his side, Roux told varsitycup.co.za: “I’m certainly not suddenly getting over-confident, but I will be losing some guys to Vodacom Cup duty pretty soon, so I need to keep my entire squad fresh and, also, see what I have available to me in terms of selection.”
The Maties, back-to-back champions, are yet to lose to TUT in the history of the FNB Varsity Cup presented by Steinhoff International.
“TUT won’t be pushovers, of that I’m certain,” continued Roux.
“I thought they were full value against UJ last Monday, and probably deserved better than the score suggests, but I think those two breakaway tries shocked them a bit early on.
“We had a tough time against them last year, even though it was away, and I’m preparing my guys for a tough match come Monday!”
The FNB Maties team: 15 Jurgen Visser, 14 Danie Poolman, 13 Stokkies Hanekom, 12 Dabeon Draghoender, 11 Tythan Adams, 10 Hayden Groepes, 9 Conrad Hoffmann, 8 Tertius Daniller, 7 Jonathan Adendorf, 6 Sam Mabombo, 5 Hugo Kloppers, 4 Andrew Prior, 3 Lourens Adriaanse (captain), 2 Matthew Dobson, 1 Johan Roets.
Replacements: 16 Andrew Crausaz, 17 Mike De Neuilly-Rice, 18 Marinus Pretorius, 19 Josh Strauss, 20 Johan Herbst, 21 Stephan van der Merwe, 22 Jonathan Francke, 23 Buhle Mxunuywa.
Head coach: Chean Roux
Date: Monday, February 8
Venue: Danie Craven Stadium
Kick-off: 7.30pm
Referee: Matt Kemp
