Ruan Pienaar to captain Cheetahs against Kings

This week’s only PRO14 fixture takes place in Bloemfontein where the Cheetahs host the Southern Kings in their South African derby on Saturday.

Cheetahs head coach Hawies Fourie has made five tweaks to his run-on side for the Bloemfontein fixture.

In the back-line, veteran scrum-half Ruan Pienaar has replaced Tian Meyer in the run-on side and also takes over the captaincy from his fellow number nine while Rabz Maxwane comes in for Anthony Volmink on the left wing.

The rest of the alterations are in the forwards with Jasper Wiese replacing Gerhard Olivier at number eight while JP du Preez and Charles Marais take over from Sintu Manjezi and Boan Venter at lock and loosehead prop respectively.

Back-up front-row Luan de Bruin will earn his 50th cap for the Cheetahs when he takes to the to field.

Meanwhile, Southern Kings head coach Rob Kempson has made four changes to his starting line-up which suffered a narrow defeat to the Cheetahs in last weekend’s corresponding fixture in Bloemfontein.

There are two alterations in the back-line with Andell Loubser and Theo Maree coming into the run-on side as replacements for Masixole Banda and Stefan Ungerer at full-back and scrum-half respectively.

In the forwards, JC Astle takes over from Aston Fortuin in the second-row while Cameron Dawson is preferred to Schalk Ferreira at loosehead prop. Ferreira has been named on the replacements bench alongside Demetri Catrakilis and Howard Mnisi, who are are amongst the back-line cover.

The teams:

Cheetahs: 15 Rhyno Smith, 14 Clayton Blommetjies, 13 William Small-Smith, 12 Benhard Janse van Rensburg, 11 Rabz Maxwane, 10 Tian Schoeman, 9 Ruan Pienaar (c), 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Junior Pokomela, 6 Chris Massyn, 5 JP du Preez, 4 Walt Steenkamp, 3 Aranos Coetzee, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Charles Marais
Replacements: 16 Wilmar Arnoldi, 17 Boan Venter, 18 Luan de Bruin, 19 Aidon Davis, 20 Daniel Maartens, 21 Tian Meyer, 22.Louis Fouche, 23 Chris Smit

Southern Kings: 15 Andell Loubser, 14 Yaw Penxe, 13 Sibusiso Sithole, 12 John-Thomas Jackson, 11 Erich Cronje, 10 Bader Pretorius, 9 Theo Maree, 8 Elrigh Louw, 7 Thembelani Bholi, 6 Ruaan Lerm, 5 Jerry Sexton, 4 JC Astle, 3 Rossouw de Klerk, 2 Jacques du Toit (c), 1 Cameron Dawson
Replacements: 16 Alandre van Rooyen, 17 Schalk Ferreira, 18 Ignatius Prinsloo, 19 Bobby de Wee, 20 Lusanda Badiyana, 21 Josh Allderman, 22 Demetri Catrakilis, 23 Howard Mnisi

Venue: Free State Stadium
Kick-off: 17:00 local (15:00 GMT)
Referee: Divan Uys (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Cwengile Jadezweni (South Africa), Quinton Immelman (South Africa)
TMO: Johann Greeff (South Africa)