Bulls waiting on Potgieter

Editor

Fly-half Joshua Stander could earn a first senior start for the Blue Bulls when the face Western Province in Pretoria on Saturday.

Fly-half Joshua Stander could earn a first senior start for the Blue Bulls when the face Western Province in Pretoria on Saturday.

The 20-year old has been bracketed with Jacques-Louis Potgieter at fly-half and could make his debut for the team should the latter fail a fitness test.

Stander has played for the Blue Bulls U21 side this season and was an unused replacement in the senior side's victory against the EP Kings last weekend.

Should Stander or Potgieter play, they will be one of four changes to the side that beat the Kings.

The pivot will come in for Tony Jantjies (concussion), while Piet van Zyl (for Rudy Paige – bench), Callie Visagie (for Bongi Mbonambi – bench)) and Werner Kruger (for Marcel van der Merwe – Springboks) will return to the run-on team.

On the bench, Tian Schoeman and Ryan Nell come in for Stander and Ulrich Beyers respectively could also make their Currie Cup debuts.

Blue Bulls coach Frans Ludeke admitted that they face an uphill battle this weekend against the undefeated Western Province.

“It is not ideal when you have to bracket players two days before a match, especially at flyhalf, but we can only make the final call once it is clear that Jacques-Louis cannot play,” he said.

Blue Bulls: 15 Jesse Kriel, 14 Akona Ndungane, 13 William Small-Smith, 12 Burger Odendaal, 11 Sampie Mastriet, 10 Jacques Louis Potgieter/Joshua Stander, 9 Piet van Zyl, 8 Jono Ross, 7 Jacques du Plessis, 6 Deon Stegmann (k), 5 Grant Hattingh, 4 Paul Willemse, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Callie Visagie, 1 Dean Greyling.
Replacements: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Hencus van Wyk, 18 Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg, 19 Jacques Engelbrecht, 20 Rudy Paige, 21 Tian Schoeman, 22 Ryan Nell.

Date: Saturday, August 30
Kick-off: 17:05 local (16:05 BST, 15:05 GMT)
Venue: Loftus Versfeld
Referee: Craig Joubert
Assistant referees: Rasta Rasivhenge, Cobus Wessels
Television match official: Willie Vos
Assessor: Willie Roos