Bloemfontein - Cheetahs coach Franco Smith has named his team for Saturday's PRO14 derby against the Southern Kings at the Free State Stadium.

Smith has made one change and one positional change to the starting team that thumped Italian side Zebre 61-28 last weekend.

Shaun Venter replaces Tian Meyer at scrumhalf and also takes over the captaincy, with Springbok Rudy Paige coming in on the bench. The two flankers, Junior Pokomela and Abongile Nonkontwana, will be switching jerseys.  

Jasper Wiese and Ernst Stapelberg are also new additions to the bench.

The Cheetahs are also closing in on northern rivals and they are now only five points away from Cardiff Blues and a bonus-point win in this fixture would leave just two points shy of third place and ignite hopes of a return to the playoffs.  

"The longer you play in this competition, the better you adapt and we expect that the Kings would want to cause an upset. They will be up for the challenge and we realise that it is going to a tough," Smith said.

"The fact that they keep playing right till the very end makes them a dangerous opponent. We've worked hard on different aspects of our games since the last encounter."

Kick-off for Saturday’s clash is scheduled for 16:00.

Teams:

Cheetahs

15 Malcolm Jaer, 14 William Small-Smith, 13 Benhard Janse van Rensburg, 12 Nico Lee, 11 Rabs Maxwane, 10 Tian Schoeman, 9 Shaun Venter (captain), 8 Gerhard Olivier, 7 Junior Pokomela 6 Abongile Nonkontwana, 5 Walt Steenkamp, 4 Sintu Manjezi, 3 Aranos Coetzee, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Ox Nche

Substitutes: 16 Reinach Venter, 17 Charles Marais, 18 Luan de Bruin, 19 JP du Preez, 20 Jasper Wiese, 21 Niell Jordaan, 22 Rudy Paige, 23 Ernst Stapelberg

Southern Kings

15 Masixole Banda, 14 Yaw Penxe, 13 Meli Rokoua 12 Tertius Kruger, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Ntabeni Dukisa, 9 Stefan Ungerer, 8 Ruaan Lerm, 7 Tienie Burger, 6 Cyril-John Velleman, 5 JC Astle (captain), 4 Andries van Schalkwyk, 3 Luvuyo Pupuma, 2 Michael Willemse, 1 Schalk Ferreira

Substitutes: 16 Alandre van Rooyen, 17 Alulutho Tshakweni, 18 De-Jay Terblanche, 19 Stephan Greeff, 20 Andisa Ntsila, 21 Sarel Pretorius, 22 Bader Pretorius, 23 Berton Klaasen