Nizaam Carr to drive Bulls at No 8 against old team Stormers at Loftus Versfeld

The experienced Nizaam Carr has been rewarded for consistently impressive cameos off the bench with a Bulls starting berth in Saturday’s massive United Rugby Championship showdown with his former team, the Stormers, at Loftus Versfeld (5pm start).

The 33-year-old Carr was born and raised in Cape Town, and played nearly 100 matches for the Stormers and over 50 games for Western Province.

Carr, who also earned five Springbok Test caps between 2014 and 2016, then joined Wasps in England in 2017.

He enjoyed a short stint at the Bulls in 2020-21, but returned to Wasps until they closed down due to administrative issues.

Carr was then brought back to Pretoria by Bulls director of rugby Jake White, and has flourished at Loftus since.

Another star Springbok in Cameron Hanekom is still sidelined by a calf issue that saw him miss out against the Sharks and Lions in recent weeks, which saw Mpilo Gumede start at No 8 in last week’s 31-19 victory over the Lions.

But Carr was handed the No 8 jersey by White when naming his team in Friday in the only change to the starting XV, which sees Stedman Gans continue at outside centre and Sebastian de Klerk at right wing.

Willie le Roux seemed to get the mix right in his third game at flyhalf against the Lions, and will again call the shots in the No 10 berth against the Stormers.

There are a few changes to the bench, though. Fiery hooker Akker van der Merwe has recovered from a laceration on his shin, which saw him sit out of the Lions match.

Van der Merwe comes in as a replacement for Alulutho Tshakweni, which will result in Jan-Hendrik Wessels covering loosehead prop off the bench.

Utility back Keagan Johannes has also been retained among the replacements, having displayed some classy touches at flyhalf when coming on for Le Roux against the Lions.

The Bulls said in a statement on Friday that over 35 000 tickets have already been sold for the North-South Derby against their arch-rivals, and they will hope that it can be a capacity crowd of over 51 000 in the stands on Saturday.

Bulls Team

15 Devon Williams 14 Sebastian de Klerk 13 Stedman Gans 12 David Kriel 11 Canan Moodie 10 Willie le Roux 9 Embrose Papier 8 Nizaam Carr 7 Reinhardt Ludwig (captain) 6 Marco van Staden 5 JF van Heerden 4 Cobus Wiese 3 Wilco Louw 2 Johan Grobbelaar 1 Gerhard Steenekamp.

Bench: 16 Akker van der Merwe 17 Jan-Hendrik Wessels 18 Francois Klopper 19 Ruan Vermaak 20 Mpilo Gumede 21 Zak Burger 22 Keagan Johannes 23 Sergeal Petersen.