Pretoria – Jason Jenkins will start at lock when the Bulls take on the Sharks in a pre-season clash in Ballito on Saturday. 

Jenkins recently returned from his club duties in Japan and will start alongside fellow Springbok and team captain, Lood De Jager, in the engine room. 

The match will also see a first sight in the new season of loose forward Hanro Liebenberg and scrumhalf Andre Warner, with both returning from their loan spell at French club Stade Francais. 

Liebenberg and Warner will play off the bench in a team that shows numerous changes from the one that lost to the Stormers in Cape Town last weekend. 

Only De Jager, fullback Warrick Gelant, centre Jesse Kriel, flyhalf Handre Pollard, No 8 Duane Vermeulen and the front row of Trevor Nyakane, Schalk Britz and Lizo Gqoboka will be in the starting team again.

Centre Dylan Sage, scrumhalf Embrose Papier, and flankers Thembelani Bholi and Ruan Steenkamp played off the bench last weekend, but earn starts this time around. Wingers Cornal Hendricks and Rosko Specman played in the warm-up match against the Lions two weeks, but was not involved in Cape Town.

Bulls coach Pote Human said the match another important step towards their final preparations for the Super Rugby competition. 

“We did some good things last weekend and this is another step towards fine-tuning the squad. Obviously we will be trying to have a better start this week. The bad start last weekend, where we conceded some soft tries early, forced us to play catch-up rugby. We responded well, but I would not like to see a repeat of that,” Human said.

The match takes place at Ashton College in Ballito, with kick-off scheduled for 14:00 on Saturday.

Teams:

Sharks

15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 S’bu Nkosi, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Marius Louw, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Curwin Bosch, 9 Louis Schreuder (captain), 8 Dan du Preez, 7 Tyler Paul, 6 Jacques Vermeulen, 5 Ruan Botha, 4 Hyron Andrews, 3 Coenie Oosthuizen, 2 Akker van der Merwe, 1 Tendai Mtawarira

Substitutes: 16 Juan Schoeman, 17 Fezo Mbatha, 18 Khutha Mchunu, 19 Ruben van Heerden, 20 Gideon Koegelenberg, 21 Wian Vosloo, 22 Luke Stringer, 23 Phepsi Buthelezi, 24 Cameron Wright, 25 Robert du Preez, 26 Lwazi Mvovo, 27 Andre Esterhuizen, 28 Jeremy Ward, 29 Leolin Zas, 30 Courtney Winnaar, 31 Kerron van Vuuren, 32 Grant Williams, 33 Rhyno Smith

Bulls

15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Cornal Hendricks, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Dylan Sage, 11 Rosko Specman, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Embrose Papier, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Thembelani Bholi, 6 Ruan Steenkamp, 5 Lood de Jager (captain), 4 Jason Jenkins, 3 Trevor Nyakane, 2 Schalk Britz, 1 Lizo Gqoboka

Substitutes: 16 Johan Grobbelaar, 17 Matthys Basson, 18 Conraad van Vuuren, 19 Hanro Liebenberg, 20 Paul Schoeman, 21 Jannes Kirsten, 22 Tim Agaba, 23 Andre Warner, 24 JT Jackson, 25 Jade Stighling, 26 Divan Rossouw