Edgar Marutlulle’s Vodacom Bulls under-21 side is looking to build consistency in the second round of the 2025 SA Rugby under-21 Cup. The young herd – through a hard-fought victory – secured full points in the opening round of the competition and will be looking to do the same this weekend against Western Province on home soil.
The juniors from the capital will kick off against South rivals at midday, a curtain-raiser for the seniors, who will be hosting Cardiff at 16h00. Tickets available for as little as R 50.00c from TicketPro and moms enter for FREE!
Marutlulle has made a few tweaks to his side, the first being a single change to the forwards pack that did duty in the opening round. Nokutenda Mapungwana comes into the loose forward role, which sees Cephas van Biljon shifting to six as Lukas Meyer moves to the six-two split impact squad.
At the back, flyhalf Liam Koen has a new co-marshall in Steven Nel, who is drafted into the starting XV at scrumhalf. At centre, Kobus Janse van Rensburg comes in to pair up with Pieter van der Merwe, whilst there is also a new face at right wing where Alfondso Isaacs will get the opportunity to put his opposing number under pressure. This is Isaacs’ first run since sustaining injury in April during a warm-up match against the Junior Springboks.
The young Vodacom Bulls side has also been given a timely boost with Shaun Schürmann’s red card from round 1 being overturned, thus making him available to form part of this week’s 6-2 impact squad. Alongside Schürmann on the standby squad are Mbasa Maqubela, Rouwan Mitchell, Caleb Abrahams, Roelof Daniel ‘RD’ Engelbrecht, Abri van der Westhuysen and co-captain Lukas Meyer. 19-year-old Roelof Adam Jacobus ‘RJ’ Barnard is also poised to make his club debut which would make him the third under-19 to feature in this current campaign of the cup competition.
VODACOM BULLS UNDER-21 STARTING XV: 1. Lithemba Mfupi, 2. Juan Smal (cc), 3. Casper Badenhorst, 4. Johnathan Eloff, 5. Heinrich Theron, 6. Cephas van Biljon, 7. Nokutenda Mapungwana, 8. Marco Ferreira, 9. Steven Nel, 10. Liam Koen, 11. Thandolwami ‘Hopewell’ Ntshangase, 12. Pieter van der Merwe, 13. Kobus Janse van Rensburg, 14. Alfondso Isaacs, 15. Jaydon Bantom
VODACOM BULLS UNDER-21 IMPACT SQUAD: 16. Shaun Schürmann, 17. Mbasa Maqubela, 18. Rouwan Mitchell, 19. Lukas Meyer (cc), 20. Roelof Adam Jacobus ‘RJ’ Barnard, 21. Caleb Abrahams, 22. Roelof Daniel ‘RD’ Engelbrecht, 23. Abri van der Westhuysen
VODACOM BULLS UNDER-21 MANAGEMENT: Wessel Du Plessis – Head of Juniors, Edgar Marutlulle – Head Coach, Jacques van Rooyen – Forwards Coach, Ofentse Moeng – Backline Coach, Dr. Chris van der Merwe – Team Doctor, Claudette Eckard – Physiotherapist, Limbi Siyani – Sports Scientist, Michael Prevoo – Strength and Conditioning, Tshepo Mashigo – Logistics Manager, Prieur Le Grange and Justin Kruger – Technical Analyst, Prieur Le Grange – Team Manager
