Current World Sevens Players of the Year Seabelo Senatla will make his first Super Rugby appearance since 2015 when he takes the field for the Stormers against the Jaguares at Newlands on Saturday.

Senatla played in the first four tournaments of the current World Sevens Series and was the leading try-scorer with 32 strikes.

But he had decided to focus his long-term ambitions on the 15-man game and this weekend marks a major step in his career.

He is on the bench for this weekend’s clash and has spent the last few weeks in the gym and swatting team tactics.

“Seabelo sees it simply – rugby is rugby – and he has been getting used to the patterns and some of the structures in general play‚” coach Robbie Fleck said.

“He’s looking good and fit after a little mental break from the game after his sevens commitments. We wanted to give him more time but this is the right game from him to come on to the bench.

“Seabelo needed to recondition from sevens because they’re a bit lighter in that format‚ so he has spent some time in the gym. But we don’t want him to get too heavy. Technically he is spot on.”

Fleck only made two changes to the starting lineup from the team that beat the Bulls 37-24 in their tournament opener last week.

Centre Dan Kriel will start at No 12 in place of the injured Damian de Allende while No 8 Sikhumbuzo Notshe replaces Nizaam Carr who sustained a deep gash in his leg last weekend.

Carr’s stitches come out on Friday so he has been included on the bench‚ but as he hadn’t taken any contact at training in the week‚ Fleck decided to leave him out.

Fleck briefly toyed with the idea of selecting Scotland centre Huw Jones‚ who was at training on Tuesday‚ with the Six Nations on a bye weekend. But in the end Fleck felt it was unfair to pick Jones.

“Huw trained on Tuesday but we decided that in terms of continuity of selection we went with Dan Kriel‚” Fleck said.

“Huw has a massive game against England next week‚ which is a decider. To be fair to him‚ his mind is on that game. There has been no pressure from Scotland. We have been in constant communication with them throughout this whole process.”

Captain Siya Kolisi expects an entirely different challenge from the Jaguares to the one the Bulls posed last week.

“The Jaguares didn’t start well against the Kings last week‚ but they ended well by scoring a few nice tries‚” Kolisi said.

“They like to run the ball‚ they want quick breakdowns‚ they want continuity and they like to attack from turnover. They attack wider‚ which is different to last week.

“It’s a different challenge because they have speed‚ good steppers and they like to use the inside pass‚ so we have to expect everything this week.”

Stormers:
15-SP Marais‚ 14-Cheslin Kolbe‚ 13-EW Viljoen‚ 12-Dan Kriel‚ 11-Dillyn Leyds‚ 10-Jean-Luc du Plessis‚ 9-Jano Vermaak‚ 8-Sikhumbuzo Notshe‚ 7-Siya Kolisi (capt)‚ 6-Rynhardt Elstadt‚ 5-Pieter-Steph du Toit‚ 4-Eben Etzebeth‚ 3-Wilco Louw‚ 2-Bongi Mbonambi‚ 1-JC Janse van Rensburg. Reserves: 16-Ramone Samuels‚ 17-Oli Kebble‚ 18-Frans Malherbe‚ 19-Chris van Zyl‚ 20-Nizaam Carr‚ 21-Dewaldt Duvenage‚ 22-Rob du Preez‚ 23-Seableo Senatla - TMG Digital