Bulls captain Flip van der Merwe has been ruled out of Saturday's big game against the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld.

Van der Merwe was named to lead the Bulls at the team press conference on Wednesday, but has been subsequently withdrawn due to a hamstring injury. He will be replaced by Paul Willemse in the second row.

Victor Matfield will lead the Bulls in Van der Merwe's absence.

Bulls – 15 Jurgen Visser, 14 Sampie Mastriet, 13 J J Engelbrecht, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Dewald Potgieter, 7 Jacques du Plessis, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Victor Matfield (c), 4 Paul Willemse, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Callie Visagie, 1 Dean Greyling
Subs: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Marcel vd Merwe, 18 Grant Hattingh, 19 Jono Ross, 20 Piet van Zyl, 21 Handré Pollard, 22 Ulrich Beyers, 23 Morné Mellet