Vodacom Blue Bulls coach Frans Ludeke made two rotational changes to his team for Friday’s Absa Currie Cup clash against Steval Pumas in Nelspruit.

Callie Visagie and Rudy Paige will be in the run-on team with Piet van Zyl and Bongi Mbonambi, who started against the Free State a week ago, playing off the Mbombela Stadium bench.

“We need to win to stay in the competition, so we approach this as a knock-out match,” Ludeke said.

“We are in a fortunate position that we had very little interruption in our preparations this week with injuries, so the squad could really focus on the task awaiting us. The Pumas has shown to be formidable opponents at home and this will be a huge challenge. We have showed good tenacity and character last week and we will need more of the same in Nelspruit,” Ludeke said.

Vodacom Blue Bulls captain Deon Stegmann is hoping the strong finish in Bloemfontein will help repel the Pumas.

“We had to dig deep and use our heads as well as our hearts. We need to take that positive momentum into Nelspruit and make sure the Pumas don’t get a jump on us. They will be tough customers if they build up steam, so we need to start well.”

The Vodacom Blue Bulls team to play Steval Pumas is:

15 Ulrich Beyers, 14 Akona Ndungane, 13 JJ Engelbrecht, 12 Burger Odendaal, 11 Sampie Mastriet, 10 Jacques Louis Potgieter, 9　 Rudy Paige, 8 Jono Ross, 7 Jacques du Plessis, 6 Deon Stegmann (c), 5 Grant Hattingh, 4 Paul Willemse, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Callie Visagie, 1 Dean Greyling

Replacements:

16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Morné Mellett, 18 Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg, 19 Wiaan Liebenberg, 20 Piet van Zyl, 21 Tian Schoeman, 22 Jesse Kriel.