Vodacom Bulls coach Jake White pulled a rabbit from the hat in naming his side to face Leinster in their Vodacom United Rugby Championship match at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, naming regular scrumhalf Keagan Johannes at flyhalf and making a host of changes to the team.
Johannes, who made his name at nine, has filled in at 10 this season and gets the chance to start outside fellow halfback Embrose Papier with Willie le Roux moving back to 15 for the match.
The move is part of 11 changes that White had made to the side that lost to the Stormers in their last outing, and one he believes will be able to beat the log leaders in Pretoria.
The entire side was reshuffled following the narrow loss to the Stormers, with the key additions being the return of Springboks Marcell Coetzee and Cameron Hanekom, both of whom missed both the Sharks and Stormers games.
Other changes sees a front row with Alulutho Tshakweni, Akker van der Merwe and Wilco Louw fronting up while Jannes Kirsten gets a start as part of the powerful loose trio.
On the bench the Bulls sport four Springboks in Johan Grobbelaar, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Nizaam Carr and Marco van Staden in a six-two split
David Kriel moves to 13 to welcome back Harold Vorster at 12 and Stravino Jacobs makes a long-awaited return from injury at 11 withSebastian de Klerk at 14. There is no Canan Moodie this week as he doesn’t form part of the match day 23.
White said he had the fullest confidence in Johannes to play a commanding game at 10.
“Keagan started against Benetton, who we beat away from home. They are a big team to beat if you look at their results this season and the number of Italy internationals in their team. I’m fully confident that Keagan will be OK.He’s trained well and he’s got confidence,” White said.
“Moving Willie back to fullback was just to give Keagan a bit more calmness, guidance and understanding from the back. Willie can really go through scenarios with him on the field in pressure situations and hopefully help him to play as well as he can.”
While there was some hope that Johan Goosen would be back in the selection frame, White said he was in no rush to get him back onto the field.
“He’s running now and training. He’s one of those guys who was out for a long time, then he came back and got injured again.
“So I think the secret now, with him and all the other players who we’re going to be bringing back, is that I want them to be mentally switched on and 100 per cent committed to the fact that they’re in and that they are ready to play at this level. I can’t have any doubt.
“So I think we will keep training with Johan and see when the time is right for him to play.”
White did say that he didn’t believe Leinster were a B team despite missing 16 internationals for the game.
“The only people who are calling them a B team are you guys, the media. We’re not for one minute saying it’s a B team. This Leinster team is unbeaten and they are definitely the leaders in our competition in terms of creating depth and understanding that they’re not going to have their best players all the time. And they’re still unbeaten.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that they’re better this year after bringing in guys like Rabah Slimani, Jordie Barrett and RG Snyman. They’ve already got [Irish] players there who are really talented and they’ve been made stronger by surrounding them with really seasoned campaigners.”
The match kicks off at 5pm
TEAM: Willie le Roux, Sebastian de Klerk, David Kriel, Harold Vorster, Stravino Jacobs; Keagan Johannes, Embrose Papier; Cameron Hanekom, Jannes Kirsten, Marcell Coetzee (captain), JF van Heerden, Ruan Vermaak, Wilco Louw, Akker van der Merwe, Alulutho Tshakweni.
REPLACEMENTS: Johan Grobbelaar, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Mornay Smith, Reinhardt Ludwig, Marco van Staden, Nizaam Carr, Zak Burger, Devon Williams.