Stormers v Sale Sharks: Visitors name three Du Preez brothers in starting XV
2025-01-11
Category: sports

Investec Champions Cup: Stormers v Sale SharksVenue: DHL Stadium, Cape Town Date: Saturday, 11 January Kick-off: 13:00 GMTCoverage: Follow live text commentary on the BBC Sport website and app.
The three Du Preez brothers will start in the same team for the first time this season when Sale Sharks travel to Stormers in the Investec Champions Cup.Back row Jean-Luc du Preez will start at number six alongside twin Dan at number eight, while older brother Rob will co-captain the side from fly-half.Lock Hyron Andrews, prop WillGriff John, winger Arron Reed and centre Sam Bedlow are also recalled to the starting XV.Tom Curry retains his place at flanker and takes over the co-captaincy from twin brother Ben, who drops to the bench.Sale moved up to fourth in Pool 4 after an impressive victory over Racing 92, while South African side Stormers are bottom of the table, four points behind fifth-placed Racing.Lock JD Schickerling will reach 50 Stormers appearances, while Jonathan Roche will make his first start for them.South Africa fly-half Manie Libbok will lead the attack and wing Ben Loader makes his return from injury in place of Seabelo Senatla, who has been ruled out with a hamstring injury.Stormers director of rugby John Dobson said: "We know that this game is a must-win for us to have a chance of making the knockout phase of the Champions Cup, so we will be giving it everything we have."It is fantastic to welcome back the likes of Ben Loader, Sti Sithole and Evan Roos and hopefully they will all make a big impression in what should be a tough game against a physical Sale Sharks side."
Line-ups
Stormers: Gelant; Hartzenberg, Simelane, Roche, Loader; Libbok, Ungerer; Sithole, Kotze, Malherbe, Moerat (capt), Schickerling, Fourie, Ewers, Theunissen.Replacements: Venter, Vermaak, Fouche, Van Heerden, Roos, De Villiers, De Wet, Du Plessis.Sale Sharks: Carpenter; Roebuck, James, Bedlow, Reed; R du Preez (co-capt), Warr; Rodd, Cowan-Dickie, John, Van Rhyn, Andrews, JL du Preez, 7. T Curry (co-capt), 8. D du Preez.Replacements: McElroy, McIntyre, Harper, Beaumont, Bamber, Thomas, Ma'asi-White, B Curry.Referee: Ludovic Cayre (Fra)