Cape Town – Good news for Western Province and Stormers fans is that star loose forward Hacjivah Dayimani has returned from injury and will feature in Friday’s Currie Cup clash against the Blue Bulls.
The 25-year-old, who is equally comfortable at No 8 and blindside flank, has been out of action for a few weeks with a knee injury.
The Stormers have missed his dynamic running lines, so coach John Dobson will be delighted to welcome Dayimani back this weekend, where he will play off the replacements bench at Loftus Versfeld (7.05pm kickoff).
It is almost perfect timing, as the Capetonians are gearing up for a trip to Dublin to face the mighty Leinster at the RDS Arena next Friday.
Dobson tweaked his WP starting line-up considerably on Thursday, with the big surprise being regular Stormers No 13 Ruhan Nel lining up at left wing due to injuries to Angelo Davids and Duncan Saal.
Nel knows how to operate in space out wide due to his sevens experience, but it will be interesting to see how he shapes up against Bok speedster Sbu Nkosi at Loftus.
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There is another Stormers regular in Suleiman Hartzenberg at right wing, and along with Nel, it will be a formidable WP back-three combination with the in-form Clayton Blommetjies at No 15.
Jean-Luc du Plessis will continue at inside centre following last week’s victory over the Lions at Ellis Park, with Kade Wolhuter at flyhalf. But there is a new scrumhalf in Paul de Wet, who will add some punch to the Province attack.
There are a few fresh faces in the pack too. Pumas Currie Cup-winning captain Willie Engelbrecht will make his WP debut at blindside flank, while Sazi Sandi and Andre-Hugo Venter have been brought into the front row.
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“There are some rotational changes and a few that were forced by injuries, and we expect all of them to add something on Friday night,” Dobson said on Thursday.
“It is a second away game in just six days on the highveld to start the season, so we will need to be at our best to get the result we are looking for.”
Western Province Team
15 Clayton Blommetjies 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg 13 Juan de Jongh 12 Jean-Luc du Plessis 11 Ruhan Nel 10 Kade Wolhuter 9 Paul de Wet 8 Keke Morabe 7 Willie Engelbrecht 6 Marcel Theunissen 5 Connor Evans 4 Ernst van Rhyn (captain) 3 Sazi Sandi 2 Andre-Hugo Venter 1 Kwenzo Blose.
Bench: 16 Scarra Ntubeni 17 Leon Lyons 18 Lee-Marvin Mazibuko 19 Dylan de Leeuw 20 Ben-Jason Dixon 21 Hacjivah Dayimani 22 Godlen Masimla 23 Bruce Sherwood.
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