Pretoria – Springbok centre Jan Serfontein returns to the Bulls team to face the Stormers in their Super Rugby match at Newlands, in Cape Town.
Serfontein returns to fitness after a hip flexor injury and will start in place of Burger Odendaal, who deputised for the Bok player for the last four weeks.
In the other change to the Bulls side that beat the Sharks 17-10 last weekend in Durban, scrumhalf Piet van Zyl comes in for the injured Rudy Paige.
On the bench Akona Ndungane was included in Van Zyl’s spot. The winger will make a first start in this year’s competition if called into action. The centurion earned his last and 108th cap in Super Rugby competition in the final pool match against the same opponent and venue in July last year.
The winner of the clash will go top of the SA conference, the spot which the Bulls currently occupy. The Stormers are two points behind their inland opponents on 26 after nine rounds of matches. Both sides have picked up six wins in the competition this season, and the result could go a long way to determining who finishes further up the log towards the business end of the season.
Bulls team: 15. Jesse Kriel, 14. Francois Hougaard, 13. JJ Engelbrecht, 12. Jan Serfontein, 11. Bjorn Basson, 10. Handré Pollard, 9. Piet van Zyl, 8. Pierre Spies (capt), 7. Jacques du Plessis, 6. Deon Stegmann, 5. Grant Hattingh, 4. Flip van der Merwe, 3. Marcel van der Merwe, 2. Adriaan Strauss, 1. Dean Greyling. Replacements: 16. Callie Visagie , 17. Morné Mellett, 18. Trevor Nyakane, 19. Arno Botha, 20. Lappies Labuschagne, 21. Akona Ndungane, 22. Tian Schoeman, 23. Jurgen Visser. – ANA