Regular season captain Burger Odendaal returned to the Vodacom Bulls starting line-up as coach Pote Human backed the team that beat the Highlanders for the next assignment against the Reds on Saturday.
Odendaal returns from an ankle injury that kept him out of action for a fortnight, moving back into the inside centre position with Johnny Kotze taking up his regular outside centre position again. Odendaal replaces Nafi Tuituvake, who missed out on the tour with a knee strain that will keep him out for two weeks.
Human called for a better effort last week and was rewarded with a bonus point win by his charges, moving them off the bottom of the log, but he knows that they will need to repeat the performance on tour or the pressure will once again be piled back on them.
With the last 13 games between the two teams being won by the home team, the Bulls will have an uphill battle, but will take hope from the fact that the Reds have won their last four meetings in Brisbane against the Bulls with less than seven points.
“The players put up their hands last week and have been rewarded for their efforts. The combinations worked well and the bench complemented the efforts of the starters.”
“Our scrums were good as were our lineouts but there is always work to be done especially in terms of discipline.”
“Having Burger back is great. The players enjoy his leadership and he leads from the front along with Trevor, so we expect them to get the best out of the guys on Saturday,” explained Human.
The game will kick off at 10.15am on Saturday.
Vodacom Bulls: Warrick Gelant, Cornal Hendricks, Johnny Kotze, Burger Odendaal (capt), Rosko Specman; Manie Libbok, Embrose Papier; Muller uys, Josh Strauss, Marco van Staden, Ruan Nortje, Ian Groenewald, Trevor Nyakane, Jaco Visagie, Lizo Gqoboka.
Reserves: Corniel Els, Gerhard Steenekamp, Wiehahn Herbst, Ryno Pieterse, Ruan Steenkamp, Ivan van Zyl, Morne Steyn, Divan Rossouw.