Nick Hatton will captain the Sharks for the URC opening game against the Ospreys. New signings Darrien Landsberg and Suleiman Hartzenberg feature in the starting lineup with Ivan van Zyl on the bench. Vusi Moyo will run the show from 10 with Jaden Hendrikse next to him. The Sharks plan to get the maximum out of Luan Giliomee before he joins the Bulls in December. Exciting but still raw talent Zekhethelo Siyaya is on the bench.
(more…)Rassie has started to rate Andre Esterhuizen much higher of recent. So much so that he has named him as captain of the Boks against Australia in Perth – even though Handre Pollard and Eben Etzebeth are both in the starting team.
The team has been rotated heavily but Rassie has still kept his best front row plus Lood de Jager and Jasper Wiese on the bench for just in case. I would have much rather had Cameron Hanekom starting at 8 than Marco van Staden. The Aussies have some very fast loose forwards with Fraser McReight and Harry Wilson up there with the best jacklers in the world.
(more…)JPP has mixed up his squad for the warm-up against the Lions on Friday. The Hendrikse brothers are back running the show with only Luan Giliomee, .Phepsi Buthelezi, Corne Rahl retaining their jerseys from last week and Litelihle Bester starting but moving to wing. It does not look like the match will be televised.
(more…)Rassie has kept the changes to a minimum with Damian Willemse coming back in for the injured Cheslin Kolbe and Morné van den Berg swapping places with Cobus Reinach. I would have liked Manie Libbok at 10 – the Bok attack just looked so much better with him running the show. Van den Berg really tried to cover every blade of grass (in attack and defense) when he came on – will be interesting to see how he paces himself over a longer period.
(more…)Interestingly the Sharks keep including Luan Giliomee in teams even though he set to join the Bulls in December. In the past they would have allowed an early release – now they are making full use of him while short on full back cover. The game is in George on Friday night and will not be televised.
I have not been a fan of Ross Braude but after his recent form in the Currie Cup I would think he deserves a go in the URC team.
(more…)Rassie made only one injury enforced change to the team for the third test. Cheslin Kolbe moves to full back while Kurt-Lee Arendse comes back into the team at wing.
This is in effect another must win game for the Boks as they would not want to lose the SA leg of the tour to the All Blacks. The Springboks showed major improvement from the first game. The maul worked really well, they did manage to get points from their 22 visits, Eben and co disrupted their lineout a number of times, the Boks won the high ball battle (Ethan Hooker was outstanding) and the Bok defense mostly ensured that the All Blacks did not have their own way on attack.
(more…)Cheslin Kolbe and Grant Williams (would probably have been dropped anyway) are out with injury – so Ethan Hooker and Cobus Reinach starts. SFM (also had a poor match overall) is dropped to the bench and Pollard starts the crunch match for the Boks.
Deon Fourie is on the bench as hooker – a selection that will raise eyebrows but he did trouble the All Blacks in their game against the Stormers. Thomas du Toit and Lood de Jager will add some scrumming power and old heads later in the game.
(more…)Coach Vowles has mostly stayed with the same squad with just one change with Pieterse at 8 and Mavesere moving to 6.
The Sharks still has a tiny mathematical chance to reach the semis but will require Boland to lose against Griquas without any bonus log points, Stormers and Lions to draw and score 4 tries and beat the Bulls by 29 points. Should both the Pumas and Boland lose their games without bonus points the Sharks just have to score 4 tries. So basically the Sharks are playing for pride.
(more…)The Sharks (with a very small mathematical chance of making the top 4 on 10 log points) will face the Lions (13 log points) in Pietermaritzburg on Friday night. Hopefully the coaches have worked on the scrum, lineout and kicking as the Sharks were really poor in all these departments against the Griquas. Slabbert coming back into the team should at least improve the lineout.
(more…)Rassie has picked a very strong starting team for the All Blacks. The strongest available scrumming front row of Louw, Marx and Nche has been picked – question is will the refs reward the Bok scrum? Andre Esterhuizen has been picked in the hybrid bench role with SFM preferred ahead of Libbok.
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