De Jongh back in the mix for Stormers

Springbok centre Juan de Jongh's return provides the Stormers with more depth heading into their clash with the Brumbies in Cape Town on Saturday.


The Stormers are coming off a bye-week and they have made four changes to the starting XV that beat the Chiefs two weeks ago.


The first, and most high-profile change, sees De Jongh come into the outside-centre position at the expense of Damian de Allende which means that captain Jean de Villiers makes the shift in the No.12 jersey.


The second change in the backline is injury induced as Gerhard van den Heever gets a start on the wing in the place of the injured Bryan Habana.


Van den Heever has had a tough time since he won the Super Rugby competition with the Bulls and will be hoping that, with Habana out for an extended period of time, he can cement his place in the Stormers starting XV.


There are two more changes that have been made by Allister Coetzee, they are Dewaldt Duvenage coming in for Nic Groom and Tiaan Liebenburg coming into the front-row for Deon Fourie.


Jaco Taute also returns to the matchday 22 but is on the bench after returning to action following an unfortunate incident against the Bulls in the first week of the competition.


Stormers: 15 Joe Pietersen, 14 Gio Aplon, 13 Juan de Jongh, 12 Jean de Villiers (captain), 11 Gerhard van den Heever, 10 Elton Jantjies, 9 Dewaldt Duvenage, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Rynhardt Elstadt, 6 Siya Kolisi, 5 Andries Bekker, 4 De Kock Steenkamp, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Tiaan Liebenberg, 1 Steven Kitshoff.

Replacements: 16 Deon Fourie, 17 Pat Cilliers, 18 Don Armand, 19 Nizaam Carr, 20 Nic Groom, 21 Damian de Allende, 22 Jaco Taute.


Date: Saturday, March 23

Venue: Newlands Stadium, Cape Town

Kick-off: 19.10 (17.10 GMT)

Referee: Glen Jackson (New Zealand)

Assistant referees: Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa), Marc van Zyl (South Africa)

TMO: Deon van Blommestein (South Africa)