Marais changes two for Bulls to face Cheetahs
Although almost no chance exists for the Bulls to reach the play-offs in the Super Rugby series, Nollis Marais yet selected a strong team for the Bulls' last league match against the Cheetahs.
Bulls coach Nollis Marais made two changes to his starting team that will play their final round match of the Super Rugby competition against the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
Tian Schoeman will start at flyhalf for the Pretoria team, while Marcel van der Merwe will begin at tighthead prop. Both players started off the bench against the Sunwolves last weekend and swop places with Francois Brummer and Werner Kruger respectively.
There is one other change on the bench, with Bandise Maku coming in for Jaco Visagie.
“We want to finish this phase with some momentum. This group developed nicely this season and I am happy about the progress we have shown. It may very well be a final opportunity for a number of players to represent the Vodacom Bulls and I expect a very positive effort from them,” Marais said.
Captain Adriaan Strauss knows that Bloemfontein will be a hostile environment.
“The Cheetahs will try to finish strong, but so will we. We owe it to ourselves to deliver a performance we all can be proud of. If we fall short in making the play-offs, we only have ourselves to blame, but it will not be because of a lack of trying in our final game.”
The team is: Jesse Kriel, Jamba Ulengo, Dries Swanepoel, Burger Odendaal, Travis Ismaiel, Tian Schoeman, Piet van Zyl, Renaldo Bothma, Jannes Kirsten, Lappies Labuschagne, Marvin Orie, Jason Jenkins, Marcel van der Merwe, Adriaan Strauss (c), Pierre Schoeman. Replacements: Bandise Maku, Nqoba Mxoli, Werner Kruger, Grant Hattingh, Arno Botha, Rudy Paige, Francois Brummer, SP Marais.
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