Johan Goosen will make his much-anticipated return for the Vodacom Bulls when they take on Edinburgh in their Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

The 30-year-old Springbok will start at fullback as he returns from an injury that sidelined him early in the 2021/22 season.

Stravino Jacobs will also be a new addition to the backline, where he replaces S’bu Nkosi after the wing was called up to the national team this week, while Zak Burger will earn a start at scrumhalf.

Recently capped Springbok, Elrigh Louw, will also make a return in the blue jumper where he will start in the No 8 jersey in place of Mihlali Mosi who suffered an injury in the opening clash at Ellis Park last week.

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The Vodacom Bulls are expecting a tough challenge from the Scottish visitors who also started their season campaign on a high with an emphatic 44-6 win over Dragons.

“It was good to be able to start the new season on a winning note, beating a tough Lions side in their own backyard. We had a few areas we identified that we needed to work on this week and the boys were hard at work getting those better,” said Vodacom Bulls director of rugby, Jake White.

“Edinburgh is a tough and talented side. They had an incredible game against Dragons last weekend where they won by a convincing margin. We know how tough they are from our last meeting in the previous season where they beat us. We will need to be at our best if we want to get a good result. We expect another tough encounter against a well-coached outfit.”

The match will kick-off at 2:30pm on Saturday.

Vodacom Bulls –15 Johan Goosen, 14 Cornal Hendricks, 13 Lionel Mapoe, 12 David Kriel, 11 Stravino Jacobs, 10 Chris Smith, 9 Zak Burger; 8 Elrigh Louw, 7 Ruan Vermaak, 6 Marcell Coetzee (c), 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Walt Steenkamp, 3 Mornay Smith, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Gerhard Steenekamp.
Subs: 16 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 17 Simphiwe Matanzima, 18 Francois Klopper, 19 Janko Swanepoel, 20 Marco van Staden, 21 Embrose Papier, 22 Morne Steyn, 23 Stedman Gans.

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Photo: ©Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix