Pollard on the bench for Blue Bulls

John Mitchell made only a few changes to his team to take on the Sharks in an important Currie Cup match in Durban this Saturday.

September 21, 2017

Rekord Pretoria 1 minute read

John Mitchell and his captain, Burger Odendaal. Photo: Koos Venter

Springbok flyhalf Handré Pollard will be on the bench for the Blue Bulls on Saturday when they take on the Sharks, who is the current log leaders in the Currie Cup competition.

Johnny Kotze will start on the wing and Conraad van Vuuren at tighthead in this game in Durban.

The inclusion of Kotze is a first start in light blue for the former Western Province midfielder after coming off the bench twice earlier in the competition, with Van Vuuren, who last started against the Pumas in Nelspruit in August, is the other change in the run-on team from last weekend.

Executive of Rugby, John Mitchell, also opted for Ulrich Beyers on the bench, with the utility back due for a first appearance in this year’s competition.

“We are no doubt facing our biggest challenge of the season. The Sharks have been in awesome form this year and to have to travel down to Durban to face them is not making it any easier. That said, this group is all about challenges and how we confront and handle them, so we are looking forward to the clash,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell was keen to see more improvement from the team.

“We are slowly starting to come to grips with a number of structural changes and for once, there is some continuity available in selection, something that was not possible earlier in the competition,” he stressed.

The team will again be captained by Burger Odendaal.

“We are working hard to adapt to a number of things and there was a positive approach to the work put in this week, so we now need to go down to Durban and show the improvements,” Odendaal said.

The team is: Warrick Gelant, Duncan Matthews, Burger Odendaal (c; 37, 30), JT Jackson, Johnny Kotze, Marnitz Boshoff, Ivan van Zyl, Jano Venter, Jannes Kirsten, Nic de Jager, Aston Fortuin, Ruben van Heerden, Conraad van Vuuren, Edgar Marutlulle, Pierre Schoeman. Replacements: Johan Grobbelaar, Matthys Basson, Tim Agaba, Marco van Staden, Piet van Zyl, Handrè Pollard, Ulrich Beyers.