Cape Town — Springbok Warrick Gelant Will start at fullback for the Stormers in their United Rugby Championship match against the Sharks at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday.
Gelant’s elevation to the starting XV is the only change to the backline that drew against the Sharks at Kings Park last week. Damian Willemse has been named on the bench.
Up front, Brok Harris will make his 100th appearance for the Stormers in the return match against the Sharks.
Harris starts at tighthead prop in the other change to the line-up for the coastal clash, which kicks off at 5.05pm on Saturday.
He has played on both sides of the scrum for the DHL Stormers this season and will line up alongside captain Steven Kitshoff and hooker Scarra Ntubeni in a front row which boasts almost 300 Stormers caps between them.
Utility forward Ben-Jason Dixon returns from injury and will make his first URC appearance when he takes the field.
Stormers head coach John Dobson paid tribute to Harris, who has always gone above and beyond the call of duty for his team.
"We brought Brok in as a scrum consultant this season, hoping to benefit from his knowledge of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship teams and conditions. His performances on the pitch have been remarkable and there is nobody who deserves this milestone more than him," he said.
On Gelant’s starting berth, Dobson said: "Warrick was always going to start this game as per our plan and having someone like Damian on the bench affords us the luxury of an extra forward replacement. Both of them are in incredible form and will play vital roles on Saturday.
"After starting the year with two away games, the team is keen to get out there in front of our Faithful supporters at DHL Stadium and deliver a worthy performance at home," he added.
Stormers team: 15 Warrick Gelant 14 Angelo Davids 13 Ruhan Nel 12 Dan du Plessis 11 Seabelo Senatla 10 Manie Libbok 8 Herschel Jantjies 8 Hacjivah Dayimani 7 Ernst van Rhyn 6 Deon Fourie 5 Marvin Orie 4 Adre Smith 3 Brok Harris 2 Scarra Ntubeni 1 Steven Kitshoff (captain).
Bench: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter 17 Leon Lyons 18 Sazi Sandi 19 Ben-Jason Dixon 20 Marcel Theunissen 21 Nama Xaba 22 Paul de Wet 23 Damian Willemse
IOL Sport