Serfontein at milestone against the Blues
Bulls centre Jan Serfontein will reach a milestone in his rugby career on Saturday against the Blues in North Harbour when he will run on the field in his favourite position for his 50th Super Rugby game.
Bulls midfielder, Jan Serfontein, will make a 50th appearance for his team on Saturday when they meet the Blues in a Super Rugby match, while one of the Bulls’ young signings in the front row could get his chance to play at Super Rugby level.
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 no 13 jersey last weekend. He will combine with Jesse Kriel in this first tour match in New Zealand.
The Springbok centre 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 loose head, that day and Kriel played fullback.
Kriel’s inclusion is the only change to the starting backline 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.
The coach also swopped around Lizo Gqoboko and Pierre Schoeman as per rotation policy and included Nick de Jager on flank in place of suspended Renaldo Bothma. However, the choice of De Jager at blindside flanker before guys like Jannes Kirsten and Arno Botha will definitely raise some eyebrows.
The bench will see five changes. Jaco Visagie (for Strauss, with Marutllule dropping out), Schoeman (Gqoboko), 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. Jenkinson definitely has the potential to be the Bulls’ first choice tighthead prop.
The team is (with number of Super caps and points): Warrick Gelant (7), Travis Ismaiel (20), Jesse Kriel (34), Jan Serfontein (49), Jamba Ulengo (13), Handre Pollard (28), Piet van Zyl (72), Hanro Liebenberg (11), Nick de Jager (7), Ruan Steenkamp (3), Lood de Jager (42), Jason Jenkins (16), Trevor Nyakane (73), Adriaan Strauss (c, 133), Lizo Gqoboko (11). Replacements: Jaco Visagie (10), Pierre Schoeman (12), RG Snyman (15), Jannes Kirsten (16), Rudy Paige (36), Tian Schoeman (25), Burger Odendaal (21), John-Roy Jenkinson (0)
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