While Willie le Roux will make his return to the United Rugby Championship (URC) for the Bulls on Friday night from the bench following his recent shoulder surgery, Jake White has also begun his chess game against his South African-born opponent coach, Franco Smith, with some interesting choices among his forwards.

It is White’s choice of a loose trio in particular, as well as the name of a relatively unknown 20-year-old lock among the substitutes that has caught the eye of several observers.

The Bulls, who are currently third on the log, will have the opportunity to swap places with Smith’s team (currently second) on Friday night in Glasgow. This possibility will be realised if Ruan Nortjé and his men can manage to secure a bonus point victory and, on top of that, prevent the home team from collecting league points.

While White left his starting backline unchanged after last week’s great win over Munster in Ireland, he made several changes up front and on the bench.

The choice of his loose trio is particularly eye-catching. With Cameron Hanekom out of consideration due to a minor injury and Marcell Coetzee moving to the bench after some brilliant performances on the team’s current European tour, White has moved Jannes Kirsten to open side flank, while captain and Springbok lock, Ruan Nortjé, will move to the other side of the scrum.

Another Springbok, Marco van Staden, who missed last week’s match due to the birth of his second child, will serve as number eight.

White explained during the team announcement that Coetzee, who turns 34 in two weeks, needs to have his workload managed, especially due to his knees which can be troublesome at times.

With Junior Springbok, JF van Heerden (who will only be 21 years old in May), replacing Nortjé at lock, the Bulls will have four good lineout options against the home team from the outset.

The selection of Jaco Grobbelaar, another rising star who only turned 20 in January this year, as a replacement lock also attracted a lot of attention.

Grobbelaar, who stands 2 meters tall in his socks, is a product of the Free State. It is interesting that that he represented this province in the Craven Week in 2023 and also played for the SA Schools team later that year, but that he does not come from the famous Grey College, as the expectation is likely to be. This promising young lock was a pupil of Hoërskool Fichardtpark in Bloemfontein.

If the young Grobbelaar gets a chance to play, he will probably be reunited with JF van Heerden, who was his Free State Craven Week and SA Schools lock partner in 2023.

As a schoolboy, Grobbelaar not only made the news for his brilliant performances on the rugby field for Hoërskool Fichardtpark, Free State and the SA Schools Team, but he also excelled academically and achieved eight distinctions in matric.

This important battle between last year’s two candidates in the final of the tournament kicks off on Friday evening at 20:30.

BULLS vs GLASGOW WARRIORS STARTING XV: 1. Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 2. Johann Grobbelaar, 3. Wilco Louw, 4. Cobus Wiese, 5. JF van Heerden, 6. Jannes Kirsten, 7. Ruan Nortje (c), 8. Marco van Staden, 9. Embrose Papier, 10. Johan Goosen, 11. Sebastian de Klerk, 12. Harold Vorster, 13. David Kriel, 14. Canan Moodie, 15. Devon Williams. REPLACEMENTS: 16. Akker van der Merwe, 17. Simphiwe Matanzima, 18. Mornay Smith, 19. Jaco Grobbelaar, 20. Marcell Coetzee, 21. Keagan Johannes, 22. Willie le Roux, 23. Stedman Gans

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