Prop Werner Kruger will feature in his 100th Currie Cup game for the Vodacom Blue Bulls in Saturday’s match against Western Province in Pretoria.

Kruger will become the first Bulls player to earn 100 caps in both Vodacom Super Rugby and the Currie Cup in what is a significant achievement for the 30-year-old.

He starts at tighthead prop in a side that shows three changes to the one that beat Griquas last weekend.

Centre William Small-Smith and flank Deon Stegmann have been ruled out due to injury and will be replaced by Dries Swanepoel and Roelof Smit respectively.

Blue Bulls coach Nollis Marais also decided to start with Bandise Maku at hooker, with Jaco Visagie swopping roles with the former Springbok on the bench.

‘Werner has been a true Blue Bulls stalwart and deserves this unique honour,’ Marais said. ‘He has a wonderful attitude towards life and towards this team and we are privileged to share such an occasion with Werner.

‘That said, the ball is now in our court to make sure we make it a memorable occasion for him. To do that, we need to be accurate and aggressive in the way we approach WP. We are slowly finding our feet as a squad, but we may lack in rhythm and momentum, we must back up with courage and guts.’

Blue Bulls – 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Travis Ismaiel, 13 Dries Swanepoel, 12 Burger Odendaal, 11 Jamba Ulengo, 10 Tian Schoeman, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Hanro Liebenberg, 7 Roelof Smit, 6 Lappies Labuschagne (c), 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Jacques du Plessis, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Bandise Maku, 1 Dean Greyling.
Subs: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Dayan van der Westhuizen, 18 RG Snyman, 19 Jannes Kirsten, 20 Ivan van Zyl, 21 Louis Fouché, 22 Dan Kriel.

Photo: Gerhard Steenkamp/BackpagePix