Cape Town – Bulls coach Jake White has made the big call to stick with Canan Moodie at fullback and play Kurt-Lee Arendse off the bench in Friday’s United Rugby Championship semi-final against Leinster in Dublin.
Arendse has been out of action with a fractured thumb in recent months, but was cleared to travel to Ireland and would’ve been expected to wear the No 15 jersey at the RDS Arena (8.35pm SA time kickoff).
But when White announced his match-23 on Thursday, he decided to continue with Moodie – who moved from right wing to fullback in Arendse’s place following the latter’s injury – in the last line of defence.
That means David Kriel also retains the No 14 jersey, and both him and Moodie have done well in their respective positions.
But Arendse is a match-winner with proven ability to break open defences with his electric pace and creativity, so it is a gamble to leave him on the bench.
White will surely bring him on in the second half at some stage, but he will hope that the Bulls are still in the contest against the juggernaut Leinster outfit, who thrashed Glasgow 76-14 in last week’s quarter-final and are determined to win the competition for a fifth year in a row after going down in the European Champions Cup final to La Rochelle recently.
The rest of the Bulls starting XV is the same one that ran out in the 30-27 quarter-final victory over the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld last week, but there are a few changes among the replacements.
White has brought in some serious experience in the shape of Bismarck du Plessis in place of youngster Jan-Hendrik Wessels at hooker, while Simphiwe Matanzima is preferred to Dylan Smith as the back-up loosehead prop.
The loose-forward cover is WJ Steenkamp this week, as he comes in at the expense of Reinhardt Ludwig.
Bulls Team
15 Canan Moodie 14 David Kriel 13 Cornal Hendricks 12 Harold Vorster 11 Madosh Tambwe 10 Chris Smith 9 Zak Burger 8 Elrigh Louw 7 Arno Botha 6 Marcell Coetzee (captain) 5 Ruan Nortje 4 Walt Steenkamp 3 Mornay Smith 2 Johan Grobbelaar 1 Gerhard Steenekamp.
Replacements: 16 Bismarck du Plessis 17 Simphiwe Matanzima 18 Robert Hunt 19 Janko Swanepoel 20 WJ Steenkamp 21 Embrose Papier 22 Morné Steyn 23 Kurt-Lee Arendse.
IOL Sport