Cape Town - John Dobson opted for continuity in selection rather than resting some of his Stormers stars ahead of the North-South derby (kickoff 17:07) with the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld.
The United Rugby Championship winning coach made only two changes to the side that thrashed the Sharks a couple of weeks ago, showing just how important this match is for them.
Springbok hooker Scarra Ntubeni will start in the middle of the scrum with loose forward Willie Engelbrecht taking over the number seven jumper from Junior Pokomela.
The rest of the starting team is unchanged from the one that ran in six tries against the hapless Sharks in Durban.
For the Stormers (on 50 points), several positives could come out of this match if the result goes their way.
They will most likely wrap up the South African shield as a bonus point victory, while keeping the Bulls (40) from getting any points, will see them go 15 points clear of the Pretoria side who are occupying second place.
It will also be a fifth consecutive victory over their arch-rivals leaving them with only a match against the Sharks (to win) to make it a clean sweep over South African opposition in this season's round-robin matches.
The Stormers coach was happy that he could keep continuity with the selection of players.
“It is quite rare at this stage of the season to have such continuity and we are also very happy to have some experienced players like Scarra and Ernst (van Rhyn) added to the mix this week as well.
“It has been a good week of training after the players got some deserved rest last week and we are ready for what will be another tough derby game,” he said.
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Van Rhyn will make his return from injury from the replacements bench which includes Springbok hooker Joseph Dweba. Dobson opted for a six-two split on the bench indicating that the Stormers coach expects a tough battle up front.
Paul de Wet (scrumhalf) and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (utility player) are the only backs on the bench.
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Stormers team: 15 Clayton Blommetjies, 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Dan du Plessis, 11 Seabelo Senatla, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Marcel Theunissen, 7 Willie Engelbrecht, 6 Deon Fourie (captain), 5 Gary Porter, 4 Ruben van Heerden, 3 Neethling Fouche, 2 Scarra Ntubeni, 1 Brok Harris.
Replacements: 16 Joseph Dweba, 17 Ali Vermaak, 18 Sazi Sandi, 19 Ernst van Rhyn, 20 Ben-Jason Dixon, 21 Junior Pokomela, 22 Paul de Wet, 23 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
IOL Sport