Kade Wolhuter will cover the backfield behind a reinforced Western Province pack in the Currie Cup match against Griquas in Kimberley on Friday evening.

There are five players in the forward pack who didn’t feature in WP’s last match in Durban a fortnight ago.

Prop Neethling Fouche, hooker Andre-Hugo Venter, lock Ben-Jason Dixon and loose forwards Marcel Theunissen and Nama Xaba all come into the starting lineup.

Fouche returns from injury, while Venter, Dixon, Theunissen and captain Xaba will all get some valuable game time having featured among the replacements for the Stormers in recent weeks.

Loose forward Junior Pokomela will also make his WP debut from the replacements bench, having recently recovered from injury.

In the only change to the backline, Kade Wolhuter makes his first start of the season at fullback, with Sergeal Petersen shifting to the right wing.

Western Province – 15 Kade Wolhuter, 14 Sergeal Petersen, 13 Mnombo Zwelendaba, 12 Cornel Smit, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Timothy Swiel, 9 Godlen Masimla, 8 Keke Morabe, 7 Marcel Theunissen, 6 Nama Xaba (c), 5 David Meihuizen, 4 Ben-Jason Dixon, 3 Neethling Fouche, 2 Andre-Hugo Venter, 1 Ali Vermaak.
Subs: 16 Chad Solomon, 17 Leon Lyons, 18 Lee-Marvin Mazibuko, 19 Connor Evans, 20 Junior Pokomela, 21 Thomas Bursey, 22 Sacha Mngomezulu, 23 Ethan James.

Griquas — 15 Rynhardt Jonker, 14 Munier Hartzenberg, 13 Johnathan Francke, 12 Zander du Plessis, 11 Luther Obi, 10 Theo Boshoff, 9 Stefan Ungerer, 8 Sibabalo Qoma, 7 Michael Amiras, 6 Niel Otto (c), 5 Derik Pretorius, 4 Mzwanele Zito, 3 Janu Botha, 2 Janco Uys, 1 Eddie Davids.
Subs: 16 Gustav du Rand, 17 Kudzwai Dube, 18 Andries Schutte, 19 Johan Retief, 20 Hanru Sirgel, 21 Raegan Oranje, 22 André Swarts, 23 Sango Xamlashe.

Photo: EJ Langner/Gallo Images