Hacjivah Dayimani makes his return from injury, with fellow loose forward Willie Engelbrecht set to make his DHL Western Province debut against the Vodacom Bulls in the Currie Cup at Loftus Versfeld on Friday.
Engelbrecht comes in at blindside flank, with Ben-Jason Dixon on the bench alongside Dayimani, as WP look to build on their bonus-point win against the Lions last week.
There are two rotational changes in the front row as hooker Andre-Hugo Venter and tighthead prop Sazi Sandi come into the starting line-up and Scarra Ntubeni and Lee-Marvin Mazibuko take their place among the replacements.
In the backline, Paul de Wet starts at scrumhalf, while injuries to wings Duncan Saal and Angelo Davids mean that Suleiman Hartzenberg and Ruhan Nel come into the run-on XV.
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WP head coach John Dobson said that the players coming in this week are all keen to make their mark.
“There are some rotational changes and a few that were forced by injuries and we expect all of them to add something on Friday night,” he said.
“It is a second away game in just six days on the highveld to start the season, so we will need to be at our best to get the result we are looking for.”
WP – 15 Clayton Blommetjies, 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 13 Juan de Jongh, 12 Jean-Luc du Plessis, 11 Ruhan Nel, 10 Kade Wolhuter, 9 Paul de Wet, 8 Keke Morabe, 7 Willie Engelbrecht, 6 Marcel Theunissen, 5 Connor Evans, 4 Ernst van Rhyn (c), 3 Sazi Sandi, 2 Andre-Hugo Venter, 1 Kwenzo Blose.
Replacements: 16 Scarra Ntubeni, 17 Leon Lyons, 18 Lee-Marvin Mazibuko, 19 Dylan de Leeuw, 20 Ben-Jason Dixon, 21 Hacjivah Dayimani, 22 Godlen Masimla, 23 Bruce Sherwood.
Photo: Shaun Roy/BackpagePix