Burger Odendaal to lead the Blue Bulls against the Cheetahs

Burger Odendaal will lead the Blue Bulls in their Currie Cup clash against the Cheetahs at Loftus on Saturday.

Odendaal takes over the reins from Boom Prinsloo who has yielded to flu‚ while Shaun Adendorff takes over the stricken player's place on the side of the scrum.

Odendaal ran hard and straight lines in a losing cause in the second half of the Blue Bulls' defeat against Western Province at Newlands last week.

The Bulls showed encouraging signs in the second half of that match and their attack will be bolstered this week by the return of elusive fullback Warrick Gelant who has been released from the Springbok squad.

The fit again Conraad van Vuuren is a new starter at tighthead‚ while flanker Abongile Nonkontwana has also been promoted to the starting XV.

They replace John-Roy Jenkinson and Jannes Kirsten respectively.

New signing Jano Venter is the new back-up scrumhalf‚ while Marco van Staden or Clyde Davids will replace Adendorff on the bench.

Dayan van der Westhuizen has returned from a stint on loan with the Southern Kings and has been accommodated on the bench.

Following their forgettable first half against Western Province‚ coach Nollis Marais opted to point to the positives from their second half at Newlands.

“We need a strong performance on Saturday. The two defeats in our last two matches really hurt‚ but there were some positives signs‚ especially the way we finished against Western Province last weekend.

“That said‚ we now know that the bar is set very high in the Currie Cup and everyone is aware that only our very best effort will get us over the line‚” Marais said.

The Blue Bulls team is - Warrick Gelant; Kefentse Mahlo‚ Dries Swanepoel‚ Burger Odendaal (captain)‚ Jamba Ulengo; ); Tony Jantjies‚ Piet van Zyl; Nic de Jager‚ Abongile Nonkontwana‚ Shaun Adendorff; Ruben van Heerden‚ Irne Herbst; Conraad van Vuuren‚ Jan-Henning Campher‚ Pierre Schoeman.

Substitutes: Johan Grobbelaar‚ Dayan van der Westhuisen‚ Jano Venter‚ Marco van Staden/Clyde Davids‚ Andre Warner‚ Joshua Stander‚ JT Jackson.

- TimesLIVE