Boeta back for Ulster
Dylan Richardson has been promoted to start after a lively show off the bench against the Lions. Likewise Vincent Tshituka moves from covering at lock to starting at 7. Boeta Chamberlain makes a welcome return to full back in place of the injured Aphelele Fassi. Emile van Heerden will provide cover at lock with Lionel Cronje joining the bench due to Neil Powell going with a 5-3 split this week.
The Sharks in the end beat the Lions comfortably on the scoreboard but had a first half they would like to forget. Another showing like that against a team that unlike the Lions does not self destruct into making unforced errors will see them getting beaten properly.
They will have to learn to come to terms with a refs handling of the breakdown. It is a fine line living on the edge of the referee’s interpretation in terms of the benefit from disrupting the opponent’s attack vs the disadvantage of being on the back foot from penalty after penalty. In the first half they just conceded way too many penalties, and were just very lucky that the Lions (e.g. 3 missed penalty goals) squandered many changes to build a lead.
- Ntuthuko Mchunu
- Dan Jooste
- Carlü Sadie
- Reniel Hugo
- Gerbrandt Grobler
- Dylan Richardson
- Vincent Tshituka
- Phepsi Buthelezi (c)
- Grant Williams
- Curwin Bosch
- Thaakir Abrahams
- Rohan Janse van Rensburg
- Francois Venter
- Werner Kok
- Boeta Chamberlain
Replacements
- Fez Mbatha
- Dian Bleuler
- Hanro Jacobs
- Emile van Heerden
- Sikhumbuzo Notshe
- Cameron Wright
- Lionel Cronje
- Yaw Penxe