Janse van Rensburg continues the tradition of a South African player in every final of the Champions Cup era, named on the Bordeaux bench ahead of Saturday’s clash with Northampton Saints.
Juarno Augustus is ruled out of the Champions Cup final, while former Sharks centre Rohan Janse van Rensburg is poised to make an impact on Saturday.
Janse van Rensburg continues the tradition of a South African player in every final of the Champions Cup era, named on the Bordeaux bench ahead of Saturday’s clash with Northampton Saints.
Former Stormers No 8 Augustus misses out through an injury suffered in training this week.
Fraser Dingwall leads a settled Saints side aiming for their first European title since 2000. George Furbank and Ollie Sleightholme return while Fin Smith and Alex Mitchell continue at halfback and Curtis Langdon earns his 50th appearance.
The Bordeaux lineup boasts the strike power of arguably the best wing tandem in club rugby, France finishers Damian Penaud and Louis Bielle-Biarrey, with the hard-running Janse van Rensburg primed to add momentum to the midfield off the bench.
NORTHAMPTON — 15 George Furbank, 14 Tommy Freeman, 13 Fraser Dingwall (c), 12 Rory Hutchinson, 11 James Ramm, 10 Fin Smith, 9 Alex Mitchell, 8 Henry Pollock, 7 Josh Kemeny, 6 Alex Coles, 5 Tom Lockett, 4 Temo Mayanavanua, 3 Trevor Davison, 2 Curtis Langdon, 1 Emmanuel Iyogun
Bench: 16 Craig Wright, 17 Tarek Haffar, 18 Elliot Millar-Mills, 19 Ed Prowse, 20 Angus Scott-Young, 21 Tom James, 22 Tom Litchfield, 23 Ollie Sleightholme
BORDEAUX — 15 Romain Buros, 14 Damian Penaud, 13 Nicolas Depoortere, 12 Yoram Moefana, 11 Louis Bielle-Biarrey, 10 Matthieu Jalibert, 9 Maxime Lucu (c), 8 Pete Samu, 7 Guido Petti, 6 Mahamadou Diaby, 5 Cyril Cazeaux, 4 Adam Coleman, 3 Sipili Falatea, 2 Maxime Lamothe, 1 Jefferson Poirot
Bench: 16 Connor Sa, 17 Ugo Boniface, 18 Ben Tameifuna, 19 Pierre Bochaton, 20 Bastien Vergnes-Taillefer, 21 Marko Gazzotti, 22 Arthur Retiere, 23 Rohan Janse van Rensburg
This story was first published on sarugbymag.co.za. It is republished here with permission.
