Springboks Marco van Staden and Lizo Gqoboka have been included in the Vodacom Blue Bulls’ starting lineup for Saturday’s match against the Sharks at Loftus.

Coach Pote Human has made only two changes to his side, with Van Staden and Gqoboka – who were released from the Springbok squad – replacing Fred Eksteen and Dayan van der Westhuizen at openside flank and loosehead prop, respectively. 

Van der Westhuizen moves to the bench but Eksteen falls out of the match 23.

Meanwhile, hooker Corniel Els, loose forward Ruan Steenkamp and debutant Vaughen Isaacs have been selected on the bench.

The Bulls are currently sixth on the Currie Cup log. Mathematically, they can still qualify for the semi-finals, but they’d need other results to go their way and will have to overturn a negative points differential.

Blue Bulls – 15 Divan Rossouw, 14 Cornal Hendricks, 13 Johnny Kotze, 12 Dylan Sage, 11 Rosko Specman, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Ivan van Zyl (c), 8 Tim Agaba, 7 Wian Vosloo, 6 Marco van Staden, 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Andries Ferreira, 3 Wiehahn Herbst, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Lizo Gqoboka.
Subs: 16 Corniel Els, 17 Dayan van der Westhuizen, 18 Conraad van Vuuren, 19 Jean Droste , 20 Ruan Steenkamp, 21 Embrose Papier, 22 Vaughen Isaacs, 23 Stedman Gans.

Photo: Johan Rynners/Gallo Images