Centre Josh Boulle will lead the DHL Stormers XXIII in their match against Vodacom Bulls XV in Pretoria on Saturday.
The DHL Stormers XXIII will be looking to make it two wins from two when action gets underway on the Loftus Versfeld B Field at 14:00 (SA Time) on Saturday.
Following their win against Hollywoodbets Sharks U23 in the opening round of the SA Rugby U23 Cup, Boulle’s team heads north this weekend without any of their Junior Springboks stars.
Boulle is joined in midfield by Bruce Sherwood, with Ezekiel Ngobeni on the wing in place of the injured Suleiman Hartzenberg and Asad Moos and Kyle Smith the halfback pairing.
Keke Morabe will have Aden da Costa and a fit-again Divan Fuller alongside him in the loose trio, while there is an all-new tight five with Alex Groves and Adam de Waal at lock and props Mhleli Khuzwayo and Herman Lubbe starting either side of hooker Vernon Paulo.
Head Coach Labeeb Levy said that with so many forced changes, the challenge will be to find some fluency between the various combinations.
“With the Junior Springboks unavailable and a few injuries from our first match, we have had to change things up a bit, but we are excited to see how some of the new faces perform.
“It is always a tough encounter up in Pretoria, and after a good training week, we are ready to give it a full go up there. There were a few important lessons we took out of our first match in Durban, so hopefully we see an improvement in certain standards,” he said.
DHL Stormers XXIII: 15 JC Mars, 14 Ezekiel Ngobeni, 13 Josh Boulle (captain), 12 Bruce Sherwood, 11 Mfundo Ndhlovu, 10 Kyle Smith, 9 Asad Moos, 8 Keke Morabe, 7 Aden da Costa, 6 Divan Fuller, 5 Alex Groves, 4 Adam de Waal, 3 Herman Lubbe, 2 Vernon Paulo, 1 Mhleli Khuzwayo. Replacements: 16 Scarra Ntubeni, 17 Matthew Beckett, 18 Hencus van Wyk, 19 CJ Gordon, 20 Aiden Norris, 21 Alutha Wesi, 22 Dominic Malgas, 23 Luke Burger.