Bholi gets Pumas start
Bholi replaces Chris Cloete - who is down with the flu - although he has been bracketed alongside Brian Shabangu on the bench, should he recover in time.
Other than that solitary forced change, Pumas head coach Brent Janse van Rensburg has maintained his faith in the remaining 14 players who started in their 27-21 victory over Griquas in Kimberley.
There is one further change to the bench though as Kobus Marais replaces Sias Ebersohn.
The Pumas have to turn the clock back to 2010 when they scored their only win in Nelspruit over the Bulls - by a single point, 22-21. They have since lost four Currie Cup encounters at the Mbombela Stadium against the Bulls.
Pumas: 15 Gerrit Smith, 14 JP Lewis, 13 Jerome Pretorius, 12 Hennie Skorbinski (captain), 11 Ruwellyn Isbell, 10 Justin van Staden, 9 Stefan Ungerer, 8 Francois Kleinhans, 7 Lambert Groenewald, 6 Thembelani Bholi, 5 Hugo Kloppers, 4 Stefan Willemse, 3 Pieter Scholtz, 2 Mark Pretorius 1 Kwezi Mona.
Replacements: 16 Frank Herne, 17 De-Jay Terblanche, 18 Cameron Lindsay, 19 Chris Cloete/Brian Shabangu, 20 Willie Engelbrecht, 21 Reynier van Rooyen, 22 Kobus Marais.
Date: Friday, August 25
Venue: Mbombela Stadium, Nelspruit
Kick-off: 19.00 (17.00 GMT)
Referee: Marius van der Westhuizen
Assistant referees: Paul Mente, Des van Wyk
TMO: Willie Vos