Adriaan Strauss to make record-breaking appearance
Bulls head coach John Mitchell has made four changes to his starting line-up for Saturday's South African derby with the Stormers in Pretoria.
Veteran hooker Adriaan Strauss will become the most experienced South African in Super Rugby competition when he takes to the field.
The former Bulls and Springboks captain will play in his 149th match in the tournament, bettering the 148-match tally record he shared with Victor Matfield, another former Bulls and Boks skipper.
Strauss, who made his debut for the Bulls in 2006, is one of four changes to the starting team for this North/South derby.
The veteran will start in place of Jaco Visagie, who moves to the bench, with Ivan van Zyl and Embrose Papier also swopping roles after the latter started at scrum-half against the Crusaders last Friday.
The same will apply at blindside flank, where Marco van Staden will earn a first start for the year, with Roelof Smith playing off the bench.
Mitchell has also moved Hanro Liebenberg to lock in place of injured Lood de Jager, resulting in Thembelani Bholi slotting into the number seven jersey vacated by Liebenberg.
Mitchell congratulated Strauss on his landmark.
"Adriaan has been a true servant of South African rugby and has left his mark with the Vodacom Bulls, so it is fitting that he could reach that milestone in front of his home crowd," he said.
"The Stormers are not traveling here for sentimental reasons though, so neither can we take the field with those. It will be a typical derby no doubt."
Bulls: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Travis Ismaiel, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Burger Odendaal (c), 11 Divan Rossouw, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Ivan van Zyl, 8 Tim Agaba, 7 Thembelani Bholi, 6 Marco van Staden, 5 Hanro Liebenberg, 4 Jason Jenkins, 3 Trevor Nyakane, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Pierre Schoeman
Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Frans van Wy, 18 Lizo Gqoboka, 19 Hendre Stassen, 20 Roelof Smit, 21 Embrose Papier, 22 Manie Libbok, 23 Johnny Kotze
Date: Saturday, March 31
Venue: Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria
Kick-off: 17:15 local (15:15 GMT)
Referee: Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa)
Assistant referees: AJ Jacobs (South Africa), Cwengile Jadezweni (South Africa)
TMO: Willie Vos (South Africa)