Rassie has kept the same squad as last week for the final test against the Irish.
The Boks usually struggle a bit for teams cohesion in the first tests of the season. However one can already see the influence of Tony Brown on the attack with the Boks much more willing to take the ball wide. PSTD and Kolisi both featured strongly close to the side lines in the build up to KLA’s try.
(more…)Interesting the new Currie Cup coach JP Pietersen has selected a number of players that have been reported as being released (e.g. Murray Koster, Kerron van Vuuren) or retired (Lionel Cronje) along with a number of youngsters that played with him at U21 level. Old war horse Reniel Hugo is still around to mentor the youngsters in the pack. Good to see Tino Mavesere back from his ban. Nic Hatton will captain the team from behind the scrum.
(more…)The Sharks and the Lions have come to an agreement that will allow Jordan Hendrikse to join his brother at the Sharks ASAP. It is very unlikely he will feature for the Currie Cup team on Friday, but we will see him in Sharks colors soon enough. This is very good news for the Sharks URC campaign as he would previously only been available in January.
Rassie has backed a number of the Boks (including Handre Pollard) who won the World Cup last year. He has gone with a 6-2 bench with the versatile Grant Williams and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu covering all the back line positions between them.
(more…)Phepsi Buthelezi, Aphelele Fassi, Andre Esterhuizen and Grant Williams have all been retained in the Bok squad with the other regular Shark Boks (Ox, Bongi, Koch, Etzebeth, Am and Mapimpi). New Shark Trevor Nyakane is also in the squad. Nuthuko Mchunu and Ethan Hooker are part of the standby list and will have some training sessions with the squad over the next four weeks.
It will be interesting to see who is appointed as captain with Siya Kolisi also back in the mix.
(more…)Two of the new Sharks signings (Hendrikse (debut) and Esterhuizen) will start against Wales in London. Edwill van der Merwe (starting 14), Ben-Jason Dixon and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu will also make their debuts in this game.
(more…)Plum has selected close to the strongest available team to face the Bulls this Saturday. Eben Etzebeth, Grant Williams and Makazole Mapimpi have also been added to the injury list. This game will be the last game for Werner Kok and Boeta Chamberlain for the Sharks (at least at this level – not sure if they would still be available for the Currie Cup).
(more…)Given the importance of arriving early for the Challenge Cup final next Friday the coaching team has selected a Currie Cup quality team with a number of rusty players (out of the entire back line only Diego Appollis and Boeta Chamberlain had some limited game time in recent weeks).
(more…)Plum has selected close to the strongest available team (given injuries) but is experimenting with Vincent Tshituka at number 8 and Gerbrandt Grobler at 7. I am not a fan of this trio but with Phepsi Buthelezi, Emile van Heerden and George Cronje out injured this is probably the best case scenario. An alternative could have been Tino Mavesere at 6, Vincent at 7 and James Venter at 8.
(more…)Plum has selected a very powerful team for the EPCR Challenge Cup semi-final on Saturday. The loose trio look a lot more balanced with James Venter at 6 and Phepsi at 8. The back line is unchanged from last week. Cam Wright comes onto the bench for the injured Jaden Hendrikse.
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