The Kings have made five changes to their starting lineup for Friday's match against the Hurricanes in Wellington.

In two injury-enforced changes to the pack, prop Sti Sithole and flank Stefan Willemse are drafted into the run-on XV in place of Schalk Ferreira (concussion) and Thembelani Bholi (hamstring tear), who have both been ruled out of the tour and returned to Port Elizabeth.

The two other changes to the forwards see CJ Velleman replace Chris Cloete at openside flank in a rotational swap, while Edgar Marutlulle starts at hooker instead of Martin Ferreira, who misses out on selection altogether.

In the backline, Kevin Luiters is relegated to the bench with Ntando Kebe taking over the scrumhalf duties.

Martin Bezuidenhoudt joins the bench as replacement hooker, with Justin Ackerman completing the match 23 as replacement prop.

Kings – 15 Jürgen Visser, 14 Luzuko Vulindlu, 13 Stefan Watermeyer, 12 Shane Gates, 11 Malcolm Jaer, 10 Louis Fouché, 9 Ntando Kebe, 8 Jacques Engelbrecht, 7 Stefan Willemse, 6 CJ Velleman, 5 JC Astle, 4 Steven Sykes (c), 3 Jacobie Adriaanse, 2 Edgar Marutlulle, 1 Sti Sithole.
Subs: 16 Martin Bezuidenhoudt, 17 Justin Ackerman, 18 Tom Botha, 19 Schalk Oelofse, 20 Chris Cloete, 21 Kevin Luiters, 22 Elgar Watts, 23 JP du Plessis.

Photo: Marty Melville/Getty Images