Henry Immelman returns to the starting xv while Abulele Ndabambi is set to make his senior Vodacom Bulls debut when the Tshwane outfit hosts the defending champions, the Toyota Cheetahs in round 3 of the 2024 Carling Currie Cup at Loftus Versfeld.
The two sides will meet on Friday 19 July at 5pm and tickets start from R 50, available only from Ticketpro
Immelman slots in at right wing with Stravino Jacobs retained on the left while Devon Williams completes the back three. Second-round player of the match, Chris Barend Smit is paired up with Aphiwe Dyantyi once again at inside and outside centre, respectively.
In front of the back line will be the halfback pairing of Bernard van der Linde at scrumhalf and Chris Smith - swaps places with Jaco van der Walt who moves to the impact squad - slots in at flyhalf.
Up ahead, head coach Phiwe Nomlomo has made minor rotational changes to his side with Dylan ‘Bull’ Smith lining up alongside Joe van Zyl and Francois Klopper at front row. Smith returns to the starting line-up after Jan-Hendrik Wessels’ call-up to the Springboks. Behind the three, Sintu Manjezi has a new lock partner in Jannes Kirsten who shifts roles in the absence of Cobus Wiese. Skipper, Nizaam ‘Nemo’ Carr partners up with Merwe Olivier at openside and blindside respectively. Celimpilo ‘Mpilo’ Gumede assumes the eighth man duties.
Juann Else, Alulutho Tshakweni, Khutha Mchunu, Nama Xaba, Zak Burger, Jaco van der Walt, Cornal Hendricks and debut hopeful, Ndabambi all make up the 5-3 split impact squad.
Nomlomo says his side has had a good start and the focus is on maintaining consistency.
“Cobus [Wiese] is not available for us this week on family grounds and Boeta [Chamberlain] misses out because he was away the weekend before and the short turnaround just did not allow us to integrate him back.”
He adds: “It has been a good start for us and ours is to keep the consistency going forward. We need to keep our focus on the now and not get carried away, so we are all systems go for tomorrow against the Cheetahs and then move on from there,”
“They [Cheetahs] have been on a good run against us for a while now but tomorrow is not about revenge or anything but an opportunity for us to execute what we have been working on. Yes we take learnings from the past and the game in itself is very important, considering they are one of the unbeaten sides in the competition so we must look to be on top of our game” Nomlomo concludes.
VODACOM BULLS v TOYOTA CHEETAHS STARTING XV: 1. Dylan Smith, 2. Joe van Zyl, 3. Francois Klopper, 4. Sintu Manjezi, 5. Jannes Kirsten, 6. Nizaam Carr (c), 7. Merwe Olivier, 8. Celimpilo Gumede, 9. Bernard van der Linde, 10. Chris Smith, 11. Stravino Jacobs, 12. Chris Barend Smit, 13. Aphiwe Dyantyi, 14. Henry Immelman, 15. Devon Williams
VODACOM BULLS IMPACT SQUAD: 16. Juann Else, 17. Alulutho Tshakweni, 18. Khutha Mchunu, 19. Abulele Ndabambi, 20. Nama Xaba, 21. Zak Burger, 22. Jaco van der Walt, 23. Cornal Hendricks
MANAGEMENT: Jake White - Director of Rugby, Phiwe Nomlomo - Head Coach, Werner Kruger - Forwards Coach, Jean Tiedt - Defence Coach, Kennedy Tsimba - Backline Coach, Justin Kruger - Technical Analyst, Dr. Moshe Magethi - Team Doctor, Darryn Berry and Pieter du Plessis - Physiotherapists, Bernado Botha - Strength & Conditioning, Yusuf Vahed - Sport Scientist, Elias Bennett - Team Manager, Andries Nkabinde - Logistics Manager.