Sharks looking to box clever
Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:39
The Sharks, despite suffering a number of injuries over the past week, have named a staunch and experienced side to take on the Blue Bulls at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.
Bradley Barritt returns to the side at flyhalf, having overcome the injury that kept him out of action against the Cavaliers, whereas his halfback partner Rory Kockott's ankle will not be ready as Scott Mathie slots in at No. 9.
Monty Dumond will start on the wing, and likely to take over the kicking duties following a faultless display against Boland last week.
With Steven Sykes ruled out, Nic Strauss, back from a stint of club rugby in the United Kingdom (UK) is named at flank with an experienced tight-five consisting of four Springboks completing the line-up.
Skipper Badenhorst's physicality is preferred to Craig Burden's explosiveness, the latter will play off the bench, joined by World Cup Springbok, Jannie du Plessis. The exciting and highly-rated youngster Chris Jordaan has been elevated into the match 22 having impressed on the club circuit.
Coach John Plumtree told sharksrugby.co.za that "The Bulls, like Western Province (WP), the Cheetahs and Lions are all big teams that present big challenges. They are big physically and to get the result there we need to be accurate and play with passion.
"The Bulls forwards are bigger than ours and I guess in the last couple of years we've boxed above our weight so we need to play the type of game we want to against them.
"They have big carriers and if they dominate the gain line, we're in for long day. We must be accurate on defense and play smart rugby.
"We need a massive lift in what we've done in previous weeks," Plumtree added.
Sharks: 15 Stefan Terblanche, 14 Monty Dumond, 13 Waylon Murray, 12 Andries Strauss, 11 Henno Mentz, 10 Brad Barritt, 9 Scott Mathie, 8 Keegan Daniel, 7 Nic Strauss, 6 Jacques Botes, 5
Johann Muller (captain), 4 Albert van den Berg, 3 BJ Botha, 2 Skipper Badenhorst, 1 Deon Carstens.
Replacements: 16 Craig Burden, 17 Jannie du Plessis, 18 Alistair Hargreaves, 19 Skholiwe Ndlovu, 20 Charl McLeod, 21 Riaan Swanepoel, 22 Chris Jordaan.
Date: Saturday, July 5
Venue: Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria
Kick-off: 17.05 (15.05 GMT)
Referee: JC Fortuin
Touch judges: Christie du Preez, Cobus Wessels
TMO: Michael Cupido
