The Sharks have named their team to play against the Blue Bulls in Saturday’s Absa Currie Cup match At Loftus Versveld in Pretoria.
Due to injuries The Sharks starting line-up shows 2 changes as Monde Hadebe moves up from the bench in place of Craig Burden who has been called up for National duty and veteran Springbok Marius Joubert who replaces his fellow Springbok Meyer Bosman.
With Craig Burden having been called up to the Springbok touring squad to Argentina following the loss of Bismarck du Plessis to injury, Monde Hadebe, the former Sharks Under 21 captain, gets a great opportunity to prove his worth while Franco Marais is elevated from his current role with the Sharks Under 21s onto The Sharks bench as back-up.
Meyer Bosman will not be risked this weekend after injuring his knee against the Lions which sees Springbok Marius Joubert coming into the starting line-up. Of course being unbeaten thus far they the Sharks feel they are doing some things right they do understand that there is much work to be done to maintain that momentum and to right the problem area’s in their game.
“Obviously confidence comes with winning, so there is definitely a belief in this group that they can win,” explains Sharks assistant coach Grant Bashford. “The nice thing for us is that we don’t feel that we have played particularly well; in Cape Town there was a whole lot of room for improvement and there were aspects of our game against the Lions where we felt we weren’t good enough, but despite having got some things wrong and still won, that gives us confidence.
“So we have some things to work on but certainly winning brings confidence to the group.”
The Sharks: 15 Louis Ludik, 14 Odwa Ndungane, 13 Paul Jordaan, 12 Marius Joubert, 11 S’bura Sithole, 10 Riaan Viljoen, 9 Charl McLeod, 8 Jacques Botes, 7 Jean Deysel (Captain), 6 Francois Kleinhans, 5 Anton Bresler, 4 Steven Sykes, 3 Wiehahn Herbst, 2 Monde Hadebe, 1 Dale Chadwick
Replacements: 16 Franco Marais, 17 Julian Redelinghuys, 18 Jandre Marais, 19 Lubabalo “Tera” Mtembu, 20 Brynard Stander, 21 Cobus Reinach, 22 Gouws Prinsloo.
Man the depth is being sorely tested at the moment, i understand the likes of the Bulls and WP are also going through these issues, but with the Sharks now it is exceeding 18 players,
Anyhows the youngsters get a chance to show their metal, they need to stand up, hooker being the position most heavily effected
Looking at the Bulls team, i think the Sharks are in trouble, the Bulls are able to put a very formidable team on the park.
Blue Bulls: 15 Jürgen Visser, 14 Akona Ndungane, 13 Johann Sadie, 12 Francois Venter, 11 Clayton Blommetjies, 10 Louis Fouché, 9 Ruan Snyman, 8 Dewald Potgieter (captain), 7 CJ Stander, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Grant Hattingh, 4 Wilhelm Steenkamp, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Willie Wepener, 1 Dawie Steyn
Substitutes: 16 Robbie Coetzee, 17 Frik Kirsten, 18 Cornell Hess, 19 Arno Botha, 20 Rudi Paige, 21 Lionel Cronjé, 22 Jan Serfontein
the back 3 probably goes with the Sharks,
Centers one for sharks and one for Bulls
one would think the Bulls 10 being a natural 10 should have the upper hand
Scrummy Sharks
the loose trio of the Bulls is very experiend and if their tight 5 hold parity should control ( good combination)
Locks i think Sharks
Hooker Bulls
props 1 each.
Very difficult to call i guess, so it will prolly go to who ever wants it the most
The Sharks are using a 5/2 bench.
The Bulls only look like a good team. Home advantage for the Bulls makes it a 50/50 game.
Who is up against who? so many new faces
15. Louis Ludik—————15 Jürgen Visser
14. Odwa Ndungane———–14 Akona Ndungane
13. Paul Jordaan————-13 Johann Sadie
12. Marius Joubert———12 Francois Venter
11. S’bura Sithole———11 Clayton Blommetjies
10. Riaan Viljoen———–10 Louis Fouché
09. Charl McLeod———09 Ruan Snyman
08. Jacques Botes———–08 Dewald Potgieter (captain)
07. Jean Deysel (c)——07 CJ Stander
06. Francois Kleinhans——06 Deon Stegmann
05. Anton Bresler———–05 Grant Hattingh
04. Steven Sykes————-04 Wilhelm Steenkamp
03. Wiehahn Herbst———03 Werner Kruger
02. Monde Hadebe————-02 Willie Wepener
01. Dale Chadwick————01 Dawie Steyn
Subs:
16. Franco Marais———–16 Robbie Coetzee
17. Julian Redelinghuys—–17 Frik Kirsten
18. Jandre Marais———–18 Cornell Hess
19. Lubabalo Mtembu——19 Arno Botha
20. Brynard Stander——20 Rudi Paige
21. Cobus Reinach———–21 Lionel Cronjé
22. Gouws Prinsloo———22 Jan Serfontein
Sharks official song
7 @ MaakieSharksAlmalBokkeseJan:
Nee jinne Tjarkie_Fornever… dis maar ‘n kak song, deur ‘n deur-die-kak band… hehehe
5 @ MaakieSharksAlmalBokkeseJan:
Haai Sharkie 🙂 Lets try and look at how they may match up in various combinations, this could be it : front row – Bulls, second row – Sharks, backrow – undecided, both teams got two bruisers in Deysel and Stander, don’t know much about Kleinhans and not sure how strong Potgieter will be just back from injury will he last the whole game? The player for me who could tip the backrow battle in Bulls favour is Stegmann if he plays to his full potential which he will need to against fellow fetcher Botes, even though Botes is at 8 am sure he will be employed in a fetching role too. Then halfbacks – Sharks. Centres – Bulls but may be close as they are both quite young at this level, as much as you guys don’t rate Joubert anymore, and I can’t argue cause I’ve not seen him play in years, surely his vast experience must count for something. Back three – Sharks, only just, and give this to Sharks because think in Ludik you have the far superior fullback. Bench – quite a few unkowns there for me, even on Bulls bench eg. not seen Paige before, I gather he is on loan from the Lions but how good is he? anyway apart from Marais and Reinach think the Bulls bench just shades it.
So all in all looks quite even with us having the benefit of home ground advantage but remember the flu hammered our squad this week and so will the guys be completely over it, maybe Sharks will try an fast tempo game from the outset to try make us real moeg, also because of the flu the guys couldn’t practice as planned so the preparation time for this game not been great, there would have been some things they would have liked to worked on after last weeks performance. As usual though GO BULLS!!
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