Cape Town - Marvin Orie and Seabelo Senatla will make their first appearances of the season for the Stormers in the United Rugby Championship clash against the Lions in Cape Town on Saturday.
Orie spent significant time with the Springboks and missed the first round of URC matches before the break, while Senatla makes his return from injury.
The Bok lock will start alongside captain Salmaan Moerat, who was also part of the Springboks touring squad, in the second row.
The rest of the forward pack is unchanged from Round 4 when the Stormers secured a 24-10 victory against the Dragons in Newport last month.
Here is your DHL Stormers team that will run out in front of the Faithful at DHL Stadium on Saturday to face the Emirates Lions. Get your tickets from @TicketProSA
⛈️ v 🦁
🏟️ DHL Stadium
📆 Saturday, 4 December
⏰ 17h00#iamastormer #dhldelivers pic.twitter.com/bxgh857bZK
Sergeal Petersen joins Senatla and fullback Warrick Gelant in the back three, while Dan du Plessis and Ruhan Nel continue their partnership in midfield.
Head coach John Dobson said they are determined to build on the progress they made before the break.
“It has been quite some time since we played in front of our faithful fans, so this will be a special occasion for the team and we want to put up a worthy performance.
“It is great to have some of our best players back in the mix and preparations have gone really well, so hopefully that translates onto the pitch on Saturday.
“We were pleased with the progress we made as a team on our tour and we want to build on that and deliver a rousing performance at home,” he said.
Stormers team
15 Warrick Gelant 14 Sergeal Petersen 13 Ruhan Nel 12 Dan du Plessis 11 Seabelo Senatla 10 Manie Libbok 9 Stefan Ungerer 8 Evan Roos 7 Willie Engelbrecht 6 Junior Pokomela 5 Marvin Orie 4 Salmaan Moerat (captain) 3 Neethling Fouche 2 Scarra Ntubeni 1 Brok Harris.
Bench: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter 17 Kwenzo Blose 18 Lee-Marvin Mazibuko 19 Ernst van Rhyn 20 Nama Xaba 21 Godlen Masimla 22 Rikus Pretorius 23 Tim Swiel.
@WynonaLouw
IOL Sport