Herewith the two teams for this weekend’s Currie Cup Premier Division Final at Mr Price Kings Park, Durban.
DHL Western Province:
DHL Western Province head coach Allister Coetzee has named his team for Saturday’s 2012 Absa Currie Cup Final against the Sharks at Mr Price Kings Park in Durban (17:00 SA Time).
Coetzee has made just one change to the starting line-up that beat the Golden Lions 21-16 in last Saturday’s dramatic semifinal, with Damian de Allende and Marcel Brache trading places – De Allende starting in the No.12 jersey and Brache dropping to the bench for the final.
“They have got a powerful team and I think Marcel (Brache) will do a job off the bench and we will probably be needing his experience in the last couple of minutes of the game,” explained Coetzee.
“We have got to front up physically and I think Damien (de Allende) is the right choice.
“He is quite a good ball-carrier, he has got explosive pace, he is quite big and tall and he has got good core skills as well.”
Flank Deon Fourie will captain the team, with six Under-21 players in the matchday 22 and six Test Springboks and one Canadian international in the squad.
Western Province: 15 Gio Aplon, 14 Gerhard van den Heever, 13 Juan de Jongh, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Demetri Catrakilis, 9 Nic Groom, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Don Armand, 6 Deon Fourie (Captain), 5 De Kock Steenkamp, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Scarra Ntubeni, 1 Steven Kitshoff
Replacements: 16 Deon Carstens, 17 Brok Harris, 18 Wilhelm van der Sluys, 19 Jebb Sinclair, 20 Louis Schreuder, 21 Marcel Brache, 22 Joe Pietersen.
The Sharks
The Sharks’ match day 22 to take on Western Province in the Absa Currie Cup Final on Saturday at Mr Price KINGS PARK features a mix of those who have done duty all season as well as returning Springboks.
In all, coach John Plumtree has selected eight current and recent Springboks in the starting line-up (add Craig Burden to that list as an unused member of the Springbok squad) with a further four named on the bench in a show of force from the Durban side.
It was a point of interest just how the returning Springboks would be reintegrated back into the competition at the conclusion of the Castle Rugby Championship, with the likes of Western Province and the Blue Bulls throwing all of theirs straight back into duty as they faced more pressure in the final rounds, while The Sharks had the luxury of being picky whilst rewarding the players who had taken The Sharks this far.
“The squad is all together now, we have been for a couple weeks, so there were fewer selection headaches for me,” Plumtree explains. “We do feel for the players that are left out, that makes it hard on those who went through the whole campaign. And might not be involved.”
He adds that there have been lessons learned from the past, although their situation did ease the pressure to play the Springboks where they might have been better coming back into the side slowly.
“Definitely, it was something we focussed on and made easier by the position we were in,” he points out. “With the format as it is, with six teams and relegation involved, the pressure was on those sides in that relegation zone to play their bigger names.”
For this match, Plumtree has retained the same backline from last week’s semi-final with rotational changes amongst the forwards. Willem Alberts starts with Jean Deysel replacing him on the bench while Steven Sykes returns for a start after his recovery from injury (which had him playing off the bench last week).
In the front row, Craig Burden switches with Kyle Cooper with Dale Chadwick the unfortunate one to miss out. Odwa Ndungane will add further experience off the bench after returning from injury.
With home ground advantage, The Sharks have been instilled as favourites, with Western Province themselves happy to take the underdog tag. “It’s a way of deflecting pressure away from themselves for them to call us the favourites,” Plumtree says. “They’ll have their own expectations and they will be coming here to win, I am not buying into that.
“They are good enough to be here at this point, we respect that and we will go full out at them and they will be doing the same with us.”
Sharks: 15 Louis Ludik, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Paul Jordaan, 12 Tim Whitehead, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Pat Lambie, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Keegan Daniel (Captain), 7 Willem Alberts, 6 Marcell Coetzee, 5 Anton Bresler, 4 Steven Sykes, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Craig Burden, 1 Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements: 16 Kyle Cooper, 17 Wiehahn Herbst, 18 Jandre Marais, 19 Jean Deysel, 20 Charl McLeod, 21 Meyer Bosman, 22 Odwa Ndungane.
Date: Saturday 27 October
Venue: Kings Park, Durban
Kick-off: 17:00 SA Time (15:00 GMT)
Referee: Jaco Peyper
Assistant referees: Christie du Preez, Stefan Breytenbach
TMO: Johann Meuwesen
30 @ Sharks_forever:
Think it will be very tough. Rain or sun, it will be a cracker.
Just had another look at that clip you put up yesterday of our final against them two years back. Hope we can play as well as that again.
@ Puma:
Hiyas bro, Yeah we will need to be in that kind of form or it will be a long day, i dont like the fact that everyone is writing off the WP, Mind you most of the Articles writing them off are Cape Town based Journo’s , so prolly trying to stirr up their team. The mind games.
I know plum is steering the team away from the press as much as possible, I can even notice it as the team normally tweets a lot, i know as i tweet with them, but very little the last week.
I think this is a good thing.
@ Sharks_forever:
@ Puma:
Rubbish man. The Sharks have snot klapped the WP / Stormers all year. Why would that change now?
The Sharks have: a better front row [all Boks], parity at lock, a better loose trio [all Boks], parity at 9, a better 10 [Bok], a far better 12/12 combo, better wings [Boks] and the inform 15 in SA.
The WP will kick, chase and defend. They might be tough, but the Sharks are at least 14 points the better team.
dreamt this morning that i was in the wp team (on the wing with habs & appels) with the final move of the game coming up. i went and called the last “move”. when i looked around again, both my centres were gone!! think the bastards went and sub themselves without sending replacements on.
mustve been a pretty kak move if either:
they went off because they didnt want to be part of it
or
if it required them to leave because we didnt need them!!
(all this mustve been because of all the sharks vs province talk of yesterday …. or was it perhaps that lady gaga video sharky put on?)
loosehead @ 33
my thoughts exactly (about the combinations)
o, and morning everyone
Morning all, my 2 cents worth, as follows:
SARU PLAYER OF THE YEAR NOMINEES:
Player of the Year:
Keegan Daniel
Young Player of the Year:
Eben Etzebeth
Team of the Year:
South Africa U20 (IRB Junior World Championship)
Coach of the Year:
John Plumtree (The Sharks)
Super Rugby Player of the Year:
Keegan Daniel (The Sharks)
Currie Cup Premier Division Player of the Year:
Raymond Rhule (Free State Cheetahs)
Currie Cup First Division Player of the Year:
No idea
Vodacom Cup Player of the Year:
Demetri Catrakilis (Western Province)
33 @ Loosehead:
Okay if you say so….LOL.
I think they have a good team and it could go either way. In the wet anything can happen, it should be Sharks, but I for one not taking this Province team for granted. I have seen a full strength Sharks team lose to Cheetahs badly in 2009, a team at the time we should have beaten easy, but we never, because Brussow pratically won that game on his own. Deon is playing some very good rugby and think we should have started with Deysel to keep him in check. For now that is the only part that I am worried about and of course our lineout, hope with Sykes back it works and that Burden’s throws finds his jumpers.
37 @ Just For Kicks:
I think that is how it will go, except the CC Player of the year, think it will come from Sharks or Province. Actually not sure what it will take for Ludik to get noticed, he has been playing brilliant at fb since Super Rugby and has carried that form into CC. Rhule could get it though, just think it will come from a player in the two teams in the final. Just my feeling.
YOu gotta to love WP supporters on blod etc all over the place writing off WP and singing the Sharks praises 😆 they hoping that this will help WP
Had a very interesting conversation with one of my staff members this morning – an out and out ’till I die’ WeePee supporter.
He asked the question – “Why is there so little being said about the final this weekend” (meaning on the radio, newspapers – he doesn’t have internet). This got me thinking, and here is my answer.
3 reasons.
1. Rugby season just too long. We have been watching, supporting and up and down that emotional roller coaster almost every weekend since Feb. We are now just dog tired.
2. This Currie Cup has been one of the most fiercely fought competitions in a long time. Almost every weekend over the last month or so, has been a ‘must win’ situations, and with 2 weeks to go permutations meant that almost anyone could still take the title. Now we know who is in the final, it is almost a sort of anti-climax, and the sudden stress relief means that not much thought has gone into the weekend match yet – we will start gearing up from now on.
3. In our hearts, we know down here, in WeePeeland thats the Sharks are a much better, stronger and more complete team, and that they should give the WP boys a good klap come the weekend.
I feel for these reasons, we are fairly quiet down here in the Kaap. I also said to him, that he only needs to look on the various rugby internet sites, and probably listen to local Natal radio, to see the difference between the two provinces.
All that and the fact that apathy is in our genes down here, all make for a pretty boring build up (in the Cape), I am afraid
32 @ Sharks_forever:
I have definitely not written Province off and doubt our team has. That would be foolish. Just hope we can play as well as we done back then.
I personally would have started with Deysel. He is back to his best, bring on Alberts in the 2nd half. Alberts/Deysel I don’t see that much difference, both big strong ball carriers, only that Deysel does fetch a bit and he would stop Deon.
40 @ Sharks_forever:
I know, but Plum will never fall for that. The team will be ready. Province are a better team than many think.
Remember how we were written off before the SR semi against Stormers? Well we won that game and won it well. So there is a lesson to be learned there. Never write a team off. Plum won’t though.
@ Puma:
I am sure it will be Daniel and cotzee’s job to take care of Fourie, They know his play by now,
Even though i agree i am not worried boet, Plum has pretty much been spot on all the time, even last week with the changes he made
41 @ Just For Kicks:
The Sharkies clearly ALL have Internet…. hehehe
They are all thinking they are going on a Sardien Run….
Hahaha
41 @ Just For Kicks:
There is far too much rugby played and I blame it on Super Rugby’s format. Having to play each other home and away in that tourney has made our rugby a bit stale at times. However, I love the CC one of my favourite tournements, could be my age have no idea, as CC has always been really special to me.
I feel come 2016 SR needs to go back to the old format. NO need to play our home teams twice. Once is enough. We do that in CC.
I do have to say though, the CC does allow us to see some new exciting youngsters playing that are not in SR.
45 @ grootblousmile:
hehehehe.
bwaaaaahaaaaa. A Sardien run………….
47 @ Puma:
meant – Sardine
40 @ Sharks_forever:I can only talk for myself, of course, but in my opinion, you couldn’t be further from the truth with your statement. Sharks are the stronger team, they should win, it will be an injustice if they lose it, And I firmly believe, that if the Sharks do lose this weekend, it will be of their own making, not that of the WeePee being better.
I won’t be saddened when the Sharks win, and why can’t we talk up the Sharks? They are the better team, and perhaps we are big enough to appreciate that.
Thats my opinion, anyway
44 @ Sharks_forever:
Yes both Keegan and Marcell will know what to do, but would have been good to know we have Deysel that does that well. Look Alberts is a massive player to start with, most teams would. Just that Deysel and him are similar type of players and Deysel does do a bit of fetching which helps.
Though like you said, Plum knows what he is doing.
46 @ Puma:I couldn’t agree more – on both counts!!!
49 @ Just For Kicks:
Do a match up, player for player from both teams select your choice. I will do the same. Be honest I will be too. Not being biased if I have more Sharkies … 🙂 That was for Fender.
What’s with all this rugby talk, bring on ‘Fender and the Walkerbay Rollers’…… the CC is done and dusted, safe and sound, safely on display at KingsPark, so let’s have some music RTs, stuff the rugby, it’s party time!!!!
My most disliked competitions (rugby and cricket) are:
1. World Cup at senior/open level (rugby and cricket). I hate the build up, the fact that we must give teams 4 years to build up to a few short weeks, where 1 poor game can see you thrown out. At junior levels, I think the exposure to other international teams is great, and it’s not do or die – the match is quickly forgotten
2. S15 – love the concept, it’s just become a monster
3. IPL, CLT20
52 @ Puma:OK
15 – Sharks
14 – Sharks
13 – Sharks
12 – Sharks (Have not seen de Allende much so can’t say)
11 – Province
10 – Sharks
9 – Sharks
8 – Sharks
7 – Sharks
6 – Sharks (Deon though will be a handfull playing great rugby. Marcell just a far better player)
5 – Sharks
4 – Province
3 – Sharks
2 – Sharks
1 – Sharks
Okay looking at it that way it looks like Sharks all the way. BUT it is a team sport so probably match ups don’t count much, if they did it would be Sharks.
The last Currie Cup Final between the Sharks vs WP… 2010:
Enjoy!
53 @ Pietman:
hahahahaha. I think so too Pieta. Let us party instead…..hehehe. Get back to the Music Thread. Jeez that was a great thread that yesterday.
58 @ Puma:
We can MUSIC here!
My stronger players are in bold. If both players are in bold, I rate them equally, and I can’t choose between them
15 Gio Aplon, 15 Louis Ludik,
14 Gerhard van den Heever, 14 JP Pietersen,
13 Juan de Jongh, 13 Paul Jordaan,
12 Damian de Allende, 12 Tim Whitehead,
11 Bryan Habana, 11 Lwazi Mvovo,
10 Demetri Catrakilis, 10 Pat Lambie,
9 Nic Groom, 9 Cobus Reinach,
8 Duane Vermeulen, 8 Keegan Daniel (Captain),
7 Don Armand, 7 Willem Alberts,
6 Deon Fourie (Captain), 6 Marcell Coetzee,
5 De Kock Steenkamp, 5 Anton Bresler,
4 Eben Etzebeth, 4 Steven Sykes,
3 Frans Malherbe, 3 Jannie du Plessis,
2 Scarra Ntubeni, 2 Craig Burden,
1 Steven Kitshoff, 1 Tendai Mtawarira.
But the biggest difference for me is:
Alister Coetzee JOHN PLUMTREE
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