Duvenage brings up DHL Stormers century

Scrumhalf Dewaldt Duvenage will make his 100th appearance for the DHL Stormers in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship encounter with Ospreys at DHL Stadium on Friday night.

There will be two significant milestones on the night as lock Adré Smith reaches 50 DHL Stormers caps in the clash with the Welsh side, which kicks off at 19h00 on Friday.

Duvenage made his DHL Stormers debut in 2009 and also has 72 caps for French side Perpignan and 98 caps for Italian outfit Benetton to his name.

His inclusion in the starting line-up is the only change to the backline that did duty in the 35-0 win against defending champions Leinster in the opening round last week.

There are just two changes to the forward pack, which both come in the loose trio, as Marcel Theunissen and Connor Evans join No.8 Evan Roos at the back of the scrum, with Paul de Villiers and Ben-Jason Dixon set to make an impact in the second half.

Front row forwards Ali Vermaak and Sazi Sandi will both make their first appearance of the season in the only other changes on the replacements bench.

Director of Rugby John Dobson said that the focus this week has been on building on their opening performance.

“While we were happy with the result last week, we know that there can be no complacency heading into this match against an Ospreys side that have proven tough customers for us in the past.

“There are a few areas we want to improve on and while we have maintained the core of the team that did duty last week, we are also looking forward to seeing what the players coming in can add,” he said.

Dobson paid tribute to Duvenage and Smith, ahead of their respective milestones.

“Dewaldt comes from the generation of players that gave us the likes of Brok Harris and Deon Fourie and it is fitting that he joins them as a DHL Stormers centurion. He has always been very tactically astute and there are few others as committed to the cause.

“Adré has come back from his time in Japan a better player and while this is a significant achievement, it is almost more exciting to see where he can take his game in the future,” he added.

DHL Stormers: 15 Wandisile Simelane, 14 Seabelo Senatla, 13 Ruhan Nel (captain), 12 Dan du Plessis, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Jurie Matthee, 9 Dewaldt Duvenage, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Connor Evans, 6 Marcel Theunissen, 5 JD Schickerling, 4 Adré Smith, 3 Neethling Fouché, 2 André-Hugo Venter, 1 Vernon Matongo.
Replacements: 16 JJ Kotze, 17 Ali Vermaak, 18 Sazi Sandi, 19 Ruben van Heerden, 20 Ben-Jason Dixon, 21 Paul de Villiers, 22 Stefan Ungerer, 23 Clinton Swart.

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