Henry Immelman returns to the starting xv whilst 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 at 17:00 (SA Time).
Immelman slots in at right wing with Stravino Jacobs retained on the left whilst 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: 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. Replacements: 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.