Changes on the cards for most Currie Cup teams
Round-up of the third Absa Currie Cup round.
VODACOM Blue Bulls host the DHL Western Province in the feature Absa Currie Cup match on Saturday, August 22, at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria.
The tree teams still searching for their first wins will be in action on Friday, August 21, and will hope to redeem themselves after suffering defeats in the previous two Absa Currie Cup rounds.
The ORC Griquas host neighbours the Toyota Free State Cheetahs in Kimberley, while the Steval Pumas travel to Port Elizabeth to face the Eastern Province Kings as the Cell C Sharks look to defend their home-ground against the high-flying Xerox Golden Lions.
Both the Bulls and the WP come off back-to-back victories and with the teams sporting new coaching staff and young players, all signs point to another enthralling rugby match between South Africa’s greatest provincial rivals.
The Bulls are sitting on top of the log thanks to a greater points difference over their Gauteng neighbours, the Lions. The Pretoria side have scored two bonus-point wins so far and will battle for a win in front of their home supporters.
Going into Saturday’s match, the home side will be determined to halt a slide of four consecutive losses against the Cape side as their last win over WP was a 26-13 victory in Pretoria in 2012.
On Thursday WP coach Paul Dobson, named Johnny Kotze (22) as outside centre replacement for the injured skipper Juan de Jongh. He made three changes to the bench and only change to the starting team that won 9-3 over the Cheetahs in Cape Town.
Lions head coach Johan Ackermann has made four changes to the forward pack and two changes to the backline that will face the Sharks in Durban.
For their match against the Griquas, this week, Cheetahs head coach Franco Smith was forced to make changes to the team that went down 9-3 to WP at Newlands last week. Smith had to replace the injured fullback AJ Coertzen and loose forward Boom Prinsloo.
Injuries have forced the EP Kings head coach, Brent Janse van Rensburg, to make three changes to the starting line-up for their match against the Steval Pumas in PE on Friday. Two of them are in the backline, with concussed centre Tim Whitehead ruled out and flyhalf George Whitehead recovering from a knock to the knee.
The Pumas, meanwhile, have made three changes to the side to face the EP Kings. The Mpumalanga team will be looking to bounce back from their 44-27 defeat against the Golden Lions in Johannesburg last weekend. In the corresponding fixture in 2013 the Pumas suffered a narrow 26-25 defeat to the Eastern Cape side.
A round-up of other team news:
Griquas – Head coach Hawies Fourie showed faith in the team that gave an encouraging display against the Blue Bulls despite their loss last week and named an unchanged side to face the Free State Cheetahs in Kimberley.
Cheetahs – Clayton Blommetjies moves from wing to fullback, replacing the injured Coertzen. This has earned former Junior Springbok and EP Kings player Sergeal Petersen his Absa Currie Cup Cheetahs debut on the right wing. Star loose forward Prinsloo is out for between four and eight weeks with a broken jaw and Gerhard Olivier replaces him in the No 6 jersey, while Freddy Ngoza and Ruan van Rensburg are new additions on the bench.
Kings – The injuries to Tim and George Whitehead have resulted in experienced centre Ronnie Cooke returning to the starting line-up with JP du Plessis moving to inside centre. Karlo Aspeling takes over the flyhalf duties, while Jacques Engelbrecht comes in for Stefan Willemse at flank. Willemse, who had a slight niggle earlier in the week, is on the bench. Flyhalves Elgar Watts and Gary van Aswegen are still injured.
Pumas – Prop Corne Fourie will start his first match of the season at loosehead with Khwezi Mona shifting to tighthead in place of De-Jay Terblanche. Jason-Colin Fraser starts at No8 in place of Lambert Groenewald while lock Rudi Matthee replaces Giant Mtyanda, who shifts to the bench.
Sharks – Paul Jordaan returns to the starting line-up for the first time following a long injury lay-off and will partner up with the big inside centre Andre Esterhuizen in midfield. Heimar Williams drops out of the playing squad while Wadile Mjekevu moves to the bench. S’bura Sithole is back from injury and will slot into the left wing position. The other change to the backline sees veteran Michael Claassens replacing Stefan Ungerer at scrumhalf. Flank Jean Deysel is out with a strained tricep muscle and is replaced by Francois Kleinhans. Dale Chadwick returns from injury to reclaim the No1 jersey.
Lions – Ruan Dreyer and Robbie Coetzee move into the starting line-up at loosehead prop and hooker respectively. At lock, MB Lusaseni also moves into the starting side and Kwagga Smith will start at flank. In the backline, Stokkies Hanekom will start in the place of injured centre Harold Vorster. Jaco van der Walt starts at fullback, while Ruan Combrinck moves to the right wing.
Bulls – William Small-Smith and Deon Stegmann are ruled out with injuries and their replacements are Dries Swanepoel and Roelof Smit. Coach Marais decided to start with Bandise Maku at hooker and benched Jaco Visagie.
WP – Centre Kotze earned eight Vodacom Super Rugby starts for the DHL Stormers earlier this season (on the wing), but this will be his first Absa Currie Cup start – having made his tournament debut off the bench two weeks ago against the Griquas. On the bench, hooker Scarra Ntubeni comes in for Marius Fourie as the hooker replacement, Chris van Zyl gets the nod over fellow lock Jan de Klerk and Huw Jones is preferred over Kobus van Wyk as specialist centre cover. Jones will be on Absa Currie Cup debut for WP, having made 14 appearances for the DHL Stormers this year.
