Super Rugby moves to Singapore in the third match on Saturday as the Sunwolves host South Africa’s Stormers at the Singapore National Stadium.
This will be the Sunwolves third match in Singapore and also their third against South African opposition. The match will also be their last in Singapore this season.
The Sunwolves have played the Cheetahs and the Bulls in Singapore but have yet to win at the venue. After 9 matches the Sunwolves still have won win which was against the Jaguares.
That victory over the Jaguares came at the end of the Argentina side’s tour of New Zealand so they would have been suffering from fatigue. That will not be the case this week as the Stormers will be coming off a bye.
The teams have already played once this year and the Stormers beat the Sunwolves 46-19 in Cape Town.
For this match Sunwolves coach Mark Hammett has rested regular captain Shota Horie and started Takeshi Kizu for the first time. Harumichi Tatekawa starts the match as captain.
There is one change to the backline as Atsushi Hiwasa and Kaito Shigeno exhange places in the starting line up and the bench.
In the forwards Timothy Bond comes in to replace Hitoshi Ono and as mentioned in the front row Kizu takes over from Horie.
The Stormers have tinkered with their team as well as they have made four changes – two in the forwards and two in the backs.
Johnny Kotze replaces the suspended Leolin Zas on the wing and Louis Schreuder starts at scrumhalf with Nic Groom on the replacements bench.
In the front row hooker Scarra Ntubeni makes his first start since his return from injury, with Bongi Mbonambi set to make an impact in the second half.
Lock JD Schickerling comes back into the starting line-up as well, with Rynhardt Elstadt shifting to flank alongside Siya Kolisi and Nizaam Carr who moves to the back of the scrum.
This Match will be shown on TV in NZ (Sky), Aus (Fox Sports), SA (SuperSport) and in the UK on Sky Sports 2 on the Red Button.
Average score: Sunwolves 19 Stormers 46
Past result
08 Apr 2016 Sunwolves v Stormers 19-46 Cape Town
Sunwolves record against the Stormers
Played 1 , Wins 0, Losses 1, Draws 0
Match No.90 :Sunwolves v Stormers
Date : Saturday 14 May 2016
Venue : Singapore National Stadium, Singapore
Kick Off local: 19:55 local
Referee: Paul Williams
Assistant Ref 1:Mike Fraser
Assistant Ref 2:Shuhei Kubo
TMO : Takashi Hareda
Teams
Sunwolves
15 Riaan Viljoen, 14. Akihito Yamada, 13 Derek Carpenter, 12 Harumichi Tatekawa (c) , 11 John Stewart, 10 Tusi Pisi, 9. Atsushi Hiwasa,. 8 Ed Quirk, 7 Andrew Durutalo, 6. Liaki Moli, 5. Fa’ Atiga Lemalu, 4. Timothy Bond, 3 Shinnosuke Kakinaga, 2. Takeshi Kizu, 1 Masataka Mikami
Replacements: 16.Shota Horie, 17 Ziun Gu, 18 Takuma Asahara, 19. Yoshiya Hosoda, 20 Taiyo Ando, 21. Yuki Yatomi, 22 Yu Tamura, 23 Mifiposeti Paea
Stormers
15 Cheslin Kolbe, 14 Johnny Kotze, 13 Juan de Jongh (co-captain), 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Kobus van Wyk, 10 Jean-Luc du Plessis, 9 Louis Schreuder, 8 Nizaam Carr, 7 Siya Kolisi, 6 Rynhardt Elstadt, 5 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 4 JD Schickerling, 3 Frans Malherbe (co-captain), 2 Scarra Ntubeni, 1 JC Janse van Rensburg.
Replacements: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Oliver Kebble, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 20 Schalk Burger, 21 Nic Groom, 22 Brandon Thomson, 23 Huw Jones.
