Vodacom Bulls co-captain, Ruan Nortje will earn his 50th cap for the club in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship when the South African outfit visits Rodney Parade on Saturday 23 March. This round 12 clash will kick off at 21h35 South African time.
Nortje has been involved in every tournament game, barring the few he missed due to his recent injury, a remarkable feat for a front rower. In the three years of the league format competition, Nortje has amassed 25 points from 5 tries from the 39 games he has started for the men in blue. Remarkably, the Bok forward has only played 1 match off the bench and his run this weekend in Newport will be his tenth match in the current season, to help the lanky lock achieve this incredible feat.
He lines up in the second row, alongside his namesake, Ruan Vermaak. The lock duo will have Gerhard Steenekamp (loosehead prop), Jan-Hendrik Wessels (hooker) and Wilco Louw (tighthead prop) ahead of them; with Marco van Staden (blindside flank), Mpilo Gumede (openside flank) and Marcell Coetzee on eighth man duties behind in the third row.
Zak Burger starts at scrum-half, pairing up with flyhalf Chris Smith as the halfback duo in Newport.
MOODIE MOVES TO CENTRE
“I said a long while ago that I wanted to put him back into the centres for a lot of reasons which include the fact that he wants to play there which is always a nice thing for a player because I can see that he has an extra spring in his step now that he is playing at thirteen. I am looking forward to seeing how he does because he has also done well in the role for the Boks against the All Blacks, so I am sure he will use all that experience in this game,” says Moodie’s mentor, Jake White ahead of the World Cup winning Springbok’s start at outside centre this coming weekend.
Moodie will pair up with Harold Vorster with Sebastien de Klerk running on the right of the park whilst Kurt-Lee Arendse makes a switch from the right to left wing and Willie le Roux is tasked with monitoring proceedings from fullback.
The herd will have the services of Johan Grobbelaar, Simphiwe Matanzima, Mornay Smith, Reinhardt Ludwig, Nizaam Carr, Embrose Papier, Johan Goosen and Devon Williams all on standby in a 5-3 split impact squad.
The Vodacom Bulls director of rugby, White says his expectations are no different this week than other weeks.
“It is difficult to win away from home but we have got to try and do as well as we can on the road to give ourselves a fair crack at a home semifinal at Loftus. We have three games away from home and three at home with the fourth at the Sharks (01 June).”
Asked whether or not this match would be used as a dress rehearsal for the top-of-the-table clash in 12 days, White comments: “The one thing I have learnt in sport is you can’t look too far ahead. So, I would never jump into a situation where I would say I was planning for Leinster because we still have to play the Dragons,”
Asked whether the conditions and location of the fixture necessitated some of the changes made to the team, White said: “Rodney Parade is a very difficult ground, open and the wind is a massive factor and so I do not think it has influenced any decision on what we think we have to do but it is something we will and have spoken about in the build-up. We want to be a little bit more aware of situations and conditions that we may come across,”
“Finishing off with a strong bench is important. Nizaam Carr who is a Springbok, Grobbies (Johan Grobelaar) who is one of the most capped guys that we have in our group, then a guy like Ludwig (Reinhardt) who is still a youngster coming through. These were amongst the strong considerations with our selections and not just the conditions or the ground being played on.”
VODACOM BULLS vs DRAGONS STARTING XV: 1. Gerhard Steenekamp, 2. Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 3. Wilco Louw, 4. Ruan Vermaak, 5. Ruan Nortje, 6. Marco van Staden, 7. Mpilo Gumede, 8. Marcell Coetzee (c), 9. Zak Burger, 10. Chris Smith, 11. Kurt-Lee Arendse, 12. Harold Vorster, 13. Canan Moodie, 14. Sebastien de Klerk, 15. Willie Le Roux
VODACOM BULLS IMPACT SQUAD: 16. Johan Grobbelaar, 17. Simphiwe Matanzima, 18. Mornay Smith, 19. Reinhardt Ludwig, 20. Nizaam Carr, 21. Embrose Papier, 22. Johan Goosen, 23. Devon Williams
