Sergeal Petersen and Sintu Manjezi will make their returns this weekend when the Vodacom Bulls take on the Hollywoodbets Sharks in Durban for round 8 of the 2024/25 Vodacom United Rugby Championship.

  • Sintu & Sergeal make returns
  • First five retained, back row shuffled
  • Moodie at wing, Gans & Voster pair up at centre

Petersen and Manjezi will form part of the five-three split impact squad that also includes Johan Grobbelaar, Jan-hendrik Wessels, Francois Klopper, Marcell Coetzee, Keagan Johannes and Devon Williams.

Elsewhere, the only other changes are at the back where Canan Moodie shifts to left wing and Harold Voster partners up with Stedman Gans at inside and outside centre. Moodie pairs up with Sebastian de Klerk who will be on the right hand-side of the park with Willie le Roux at fullback.

Embrose Papier and Johan Goosen are the preferred halfback duo for the clash as was the case last week too. Likewise at the front where Gerhard Steenekamp (loose-head), Akker van der Merwe (hooker) and Wilco Louw (tight-head) combine at the front. Ruan Vermaak and JF van Heerden link up at lock once more. The back row sees Cameron Hanekom shiftting from eight to the role of six flank with Cobus Wiese at blind side whilst The Sherrif, Elrigh Louw moves to eighth-man duties.

Set pieces and break down is where the game could be won and Jake White says: “This is why we picked the pack we did. I hope we get a lot of returns from scrum time. I hope we don’t make a lot of unforced errors.”

“You can read into humid and how difficult it is to score but we just got to be accurate, patient and more importantly be clear on what we want to achieve from the game. We must not get ahead of ourselves,”

The Vodacom Bulls mentor adds: “Against these good sides, when playing away and sometimes even at home, when you don’t put them away, you will be punished,”

“The sharks are loaded with the springboks and like the Saracens and Northampton, when you make mistakes they will get ontop of you. So I hope that the lessons we have learnt over the last two weeks will come in handy.”

White says the weekend clash is exciting especially from a futuristic point of view.

“There’s so many more boxes to tick before we get to the playoffs and from where I am seated, I would like to tick a lot of them before we get to the playoffs because that helps us get better over the next couple of games and over the coming seasons.”

“This match is not about individuals versus individuals but it’s about our side playing as a collective and team” concludes the Vodacom Bulls Director of Rugby.

VODACOM BULLS vs HOLLYWOODBETS SHARKS STARTING XV: 1. Gerhard Steenekamp, 2. Akker van der Merwe, 3. Wilco Louw, 4. Ruan Vermaak, 5. JF van Heerden, 6. Cameron Hanekom, 7. Cobus Wiese, 8. Elrigh Louw (c), 9. Embrose Papier, 10. Johan Goosen, 11. Canan Moodie, 12. Harold Vorster, 13. Stedman Gans, 14. Sebastian de Klerk, 15. Willie le Roux

VODACOM BULLS IMPACT SQUAD: 16. Johan Grobbelaar, 17. Jan-hendrik Wessels, 18. Francois Klopper, 19. Sintu Manjezi, 20. Marcell Coetzee, 21. Keagan Johannes, 22. Sergeal Petersen, 23. Devon Williams

MANAGEMENT: Jake White – Director of Rugby, Chris Rossouw – Assistant Coach, Werner Kruger – Assistant Coach, Andries Bekker – Assistant Coach, Jean Tiedt – Assistant Coach, Kennedy Tsimba – Assistant Coach, Phiwe Nomlomo – Assistant Coach, John-William Meyer – Technical Analyst, Dr. Herman Rossouw – Team Doctor, Lance Lammetjies & Darryn Berry – Physiotherapists, Andre Volsteedt – Strength & Conditioning, Yusuf Vahed – Sport Scientist, Elias Bennett – Team Manager, Simon Dyidi – Logistics Manager