Why Jake White is backing teenager over his Blitzbok trump card for Bulls' Leinster clash

The Bulls have invested their faith in 19-year-old Canan Moodie to be their last line of defence in Friday night's United Rugby Championship semi-final against Leinster in Dublin.

While there has been a lot of excitement at the return of Blitzbok star Kurt-Lee Arendse from a thumb injury, director of rugby Jake White has heeded a prominent lesson he's learnt from his side's inaugural campaign in the tournament.

"To be fair, one of the things we've seen this year is that every time we bring someone back straight into the starting line-up, he's taken a while to find his feet again," the former Springbok coach said on Thursday.

"That goes for every player we've brought back quickly. Our back three combination is also a tall one and we believe there will be a lot of kicking. I don't want to unsettle that combination if we don't have to. 

"Kurt-Lee will probably play off the bench anyway and we believe in this situation, it suits us better."

15 Canan Moodie, 14 David Kriel, 13 Cornal Hendricks, 12 Harold Vorster, 11 Madosh Tambwe, 10 Chris Smith, 9 Zak Burger, 8 Elrigh Louw, 7 Arno Botha, 6 Marcell Coetzee (captain), 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Walt Steenkamp, 3 Mornay Smith, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Gerhard Steenekamp

Substitutes: 16 Bismarck du Plessis, 17 Simphiwe Matanzima, 18 Robert Hunt, 19 Janko Swanepoel, 20 WJ Steenkamp, 21 Embrose Papier, 22 Morne Steyn, 23 Kurt-Lee Arendse

Moodie, who earlier this week was included in the Junior Springbok squad for a "summer series" against Italy next month, also deserves his shot at facing the Irish (and European) giants as he's been able to handle everything that's been thrown at him over the past few weeks.

He recovered from clumsily conceding a try against Ospreys to have a hand in two of the Bulls'