Bulls captain Pierre Spies has been withdrawn from their side to face the Cheetas in tomorrow’s Super Rugby clash in Bloemfontein.
Spies suffered an elbow injury during last weekend’s loss to the Sharks and despite being initially named in the side for round 2, has not been passed fit to play. Former Kings player Jacques Engelbrecht moves up from the bench to start in the number 8 jersey, with lock Flip van der Merwe assuming the captaincy against his former side.
Uncapped Wiaan Liebenberg replaces Engelbrecht on the bench.
Bulls (revised): 15 Jurgen Visser, 14 Akona Ndungane, 13 JJ Engelbrecht , 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Louis Fouché, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Jacques Engelbrecht, 7 Jacques du Plessis, 6 Jono Ross, 5 Grant Hattingh, 4 Flip van der Merwe (captain), 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Callie Visagie, 1 Dean Greyling
Substitutes: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Frik Kirsten, 18 Marcel van der Merwe ,19 Victor Matfield, 20 Wiaan Liebenberg, 21 Piet van Zyl, 22 Handré Pollard, 23 Ulrich Beyers
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Wow, so now the Bulls will have 15 players on the field.
Still doesnt feel like a team that sends fear into the opposition
This is a blow for the Cheetahs not the Bulls!
Come On Cheetahs!!
@Pokkel (Comment 1) : @Caratacus (Comment 3) : As much as I respect Spies as a person I have to agree. Nothing in last Saturday’s game against the Sharks indicated that he’s style of play has improved.
@Caratacus (Comment 3) : @Pokkel (Comment 1) : You can only lose something you had in the first place
And someone called Tyler Fisher “Glass-Boy!” 😆 Kanko played him out of the game. Hougaard didn’t play well because he couldn’t see Spies to link with him! 🙂 I think it is time to retire, Pierre. What’s this that Jono Ross didn’t get captaincy? He captained reasonably well during CC. 😀
I was surprised to see Spies listed at 107kg with Kanko at 109kg. They are both the same height 1,92. Is Kanko really bigger. Just a little research revealed that Spies was 113kg when he played for the Boks last. Has he really dropped that much weight? Spies has always been very lean, so I can only assume he dropped that much muscle mass. I suppose it is not surprising he now tends to blend into the woodwork.