William Small-Smith will play in his first Super Rugby match of the season and replaces the injured Sergeal Petersen on the wing.

Upfront Charles Marais will run out on the loosehead prop with Ox Nche rotating to the bench.

The Springbok flank Oupa Mohoje has recovered from his lower back injury and starts in the loose-trio.

The other Bok flanker, Uzair Cassiem, has recovered from his knee injury he picked up against the Bulls in round two and replaces Junior Pokomela on the bench.

The Cheetahs captain, Francois Venter, told OFM Sport that they are a much better unit than the one that beat the Bulls 34-28 in Bloemfontein on 4 March.

“We are a totally different team, we’ve grown a lot.

“As coach said when we watched the video of playing against the Bulls in round two and playing against the Chiefs last week, there has been a big improvement for us.

“It’s especially in the first phase. We scrummed well against the Chiefs.

“Lineouts as well, especially our drives. It functioned well in the first game. We drove well but it wasn’t as good as compared to our last match.

“As a side, we’re getting better week by week so hopefully we can just go out there and do our jobs this time round.”

Saturday afternoon’s clash between the Bulls and Cheetahs at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria kicks off at 17:15.

Bulls - 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Travis Ismaiel, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Burger Odendaal, 11 Jamba Ulengo, 10 Tian Schoeman, 9 Piet van Zyl, 8 Hanro Liebenberg, 7 Jannes Kirsten, 6 Nic de Jager, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Jason Jenkins, 3 Jacobie Adriaanse, 2 Adriaan Strauss (captain), 1 Pierre Schoeman.

Replacements - 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Lizo Gqoboka, 18 Martin Dreyer, 19 RG Snyman, 20 Jacques Potgieter, 21 Rudy Paige, 22 Francois Brummer, 23 Franco Naude.

Toyota Cheetahs - 15 Clayton Blommetjies, 14 William Small-Smith, 13 Francois Venter (captain), 12 Nico Lee, 11 Raymond Rhule, 10 Niel Marais, 9 Shaun Venter, 8 Henco Venter, 7 Oupa Mohoje, 6 Tier Schoeman, 5 Carl Wegner, 4 Armandt Koster, 3 Aranos Coetzee, 2 Torsten van Jaarsveld, 1 Charles Marais.

Replacements – 16 Elandré Huggett, 17 Ox Nche, 18 Tom Botha, 19 Francois Uys, 20 Niell Jordaan, 21 Uzair Cassiem, 22 Tian Meyer, 23 Fred Zeilinga.

Morgan Piek/OFM Sport