Beast back for Sharks
Both sides have not enjoyed the kinds of seasons their players, coaches and supporters expected at the start of the season, but for some bad luck and a host of injuries in key positions, perhaps their respective campaigns might have been different.
“You look at the players in their team - Slipper, Horwell, Genia, Turner, O’Connor – these are really good rugby players, highly experienced internationals and this is a team going through a similar season to us,” explains Cell C Sharks Director of Rugby Gary Gold.
“With a couple of injuries and a couple of poor performances, they’ve found themselves on the end of a couple of bad results. But credit to them, they turned the corner last weekend against a good Rebels team and we know we’re going to have our hands full this weekend.”
Gold does however believe that the improvement in his team’s attack should bode well for this match.
“We crossed the tryline five times against the Hurricanes, although two of them weren’t awarded, and we crossed the tryline a few times this weekend and one wasn’t awarded. So we’re creating opportunities and very nearly finishing them. I’m excited about that, I’m excited about our counter-attack and I’m excited about how we look with ball in hand.
“But we’re not fooling ourselves, we realise that we need a vast improvement in our defence. But we have some young guys on the park who are learning a huge amount. Coupled with the fact that we look quite good with ball in hand and I have no doubt we can only improve. I’m reasonably encouraged by the fact that the issues we’re getting wrong are very fixable.”
The Cell C Sharks
15. Lwazi Mvovo
14. Odwa Ndungane
13. JP Pietersen
12. Frans Steyn
11. S’bura Sithole
10. Lionel Cronje
9. Stefan Ungerer
8. Renaldo Bothma
7. Willem Alberts
6. Marcell Coetzee
5. Marco Wentzel (Captain)
4. Stephan Lewies
3. Jannie du Plessis
2. Bismarck du Plessis
1. Tendai Mtawarira
Replacements
16. Franco Marais
17. Dale Chadwick
18. Lourens Adriaanse
19. Mouritz Botha
20. Etienne Oosthuizen
21. Conrad Hoffmann
22. Fred Zeilinga
23. Andre Esterhuizen
(File Photo: Gallo Images)
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