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The Vodacom Bulls are without two of their best early-season performers for Saturday’s URC match against Leinster at Loftus Versfeld due to…

The Vodacom Bulls are without two of their best early-season performers for Saturday’s URC match against Leinster at Loftus Versfeld.

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Springbok centre Jan Serfontein and winger Cheswill Jooste suffered shoulder and hamstring injuries respectively during the 53-40 opening-round win against the Ospreys.

Serfontein’s place is taken by the experienced Harold Vorster while Sebastian de Klerk shifts to right wing to accommodate Stravino Jacobs on the left.

Following Cobus Wiese’s HIA last weekend, Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg, who filled in with aplomb, starts this Saturday with Sintu Manjezi earning a place on the bench.

Bulls coach Johan Ackermann says Leinster will be a different proposition at Loftus following their 35-0 defeat in Cape Town.

Credit to the Stormers, they played well, but that was probably a Leinster performance we won’t see again. They’ll want to rectify it and we expect a lot more pressure.

“It wasn’t good to concede that many points against Ospreys,” he added. “Some tries were soft and Leinster will punish us if we repeat that. We can’t afford to start slowly and play how we did last week.

“Jacques Nienaber’s defensive setup seldom gives a team as many opportunities as they did against the Stormers. That’s why we aren’t taking anything from that loss and focusing on improving ourselves.”

BULLS – 15 Devon Williams, 14 Sebastian de Klerk, 13 David Kriel, 12 Harold Vorster, 11 Stravino Jacobs, 10 Keagan Johannes, 9 Embrose Papier, 8 JJ Theron, 7 Mpilo Gumede, 6 Marcell Coetzee, 5 JF van Heerden, 4 N Janse van Rensburg, 3 Mornay Smith, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Gerhard Steenekamp.
Bench: 16 Juann Else, 17 Alulutho Tshakweni, 18 Francois Klopper, 19 Sintu Manjezi, 20 Nama Xaba, 21 Zak Burger, 22 Stedman Gans, 23 Willie le Roux.

While supporting the principle of a 30-game cap, Ackermann cautioned that it could become another burden for coaches to manage. He also highlighted the difficulties for European sides, particularly in France.

“The French teams play a lot of rugby, 13 home and away league matches make 26 games before you even add semi-finals, finals, European competitions and Test rugby. I don’t know how they are going to keep it to 30. They’ll have to rest players and juggle it like us.”

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