Serfontein reaches half century
Bulls midfielder Jan Serfontein will make a 50th appearance for his team on Saturday when they face the Blues in Albany.
Serfontein, who made a strong return to Super Rugby last weekend with a brace of tries against the Sunwolves, will move to inside centre for this match after starting in the number 13 jersey last weekend. He will combine with Jesse Kriel in this first tour match in New Zealand.
Serfontein scored two tries for the Bulls in their last appearance against the Blues in New Zealand and along with Jesse Kriel, Handré Pollard, Adriaan Strauss and Trevor Nyakane are the only players in the team who also started in their last match against the Blues in 2015.
Nyakane was at loosehead prop that day and Kriel played full-back.
Kriel’s inclusion is the only change to the starting back-line from the Sunwolves clash but, amongst the forwards, coach Nollis Marais included regular captain Adriaan Strauss, who will not only take the number two jersey from Edgar Marutllule, but also the captaincy from Pollard.
Marais also swapped around Lizo Gqoboko and Pierre Schoeman as per rotation policy and included Nick de Jager on flank in place of suspended Renaldo Bothma.
The bench will see five changes. Jaco Visagie (for Strauss, with Marutlulle dropping out), Schoeman (Gqoboka), Rudy Paige (for Ivan van Zyl) and Odendaal (Kriel) are all new to the weekend’s bench.
A potential debutant for the Bulls is John-Roy Jenkinson, who takes over from Jacobie Adriaanse. It could be a first Super Rugby appearance for the former Junior Springboks prop, who earned more than 40 provincial caps for the Leopards while completing his studies at NWU-Pukke.
Bulls: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Travis Ismaiel, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Jamba Ulengo, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Piet van Zyl, 8 Hanro Liebenberg, 7 Nick de Jager, 6 Ruan Steenkamp, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Jason Jenkins, 3 Trevor Nyakane, 2 Adriaan Strauss (c), 1 Lizo Gqoboko
Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Pierre Schoeman, 18 RG Snyman, 19 Jannes Kirsten, 20 Rudy Paige, 21 Tian Schoeman, 22 Burger Odendaal, 23 John-Roy Jenkinson
Date: Saturday, March 25
Venue: QBE Stadium, North Harbour
Kick-off: 19:35 local (06:35 GMT)
Referee: Nic Berry (Australia)
Assistant Referees: William Houston (Australia), Nick Briant (New Zealand)
TMO: Ben Skeen (New Zealand)