Category: Currie Cup

JPP has picked Bathobele Hlekani (back from training with the Boks) to start against the Griquas in Kimberley. Unfortunately he will be moving to the Lions when his contract expires in December. Matt Romao (who really impressed last week) moves to the open side flank, while Deon Slabbert replaces Corne Rahl. Ceano Everson will join Vusi Moyo while we have two new wings this week – Paschal Ekeji and Christie Grobbelaar. I am really happy to see Jaco Williams retained at full back.

Gideon Koegelenberg will start with Slabbert dropping out. Matt Ramao starts at 7 with Jannes Potgieter dropping to the bench. The scrums were good last week, but the lineouts were a mess. The forwards were bullied at the breakdown and the maul. Hopefully the lineouts can at least improve this week.

Marnus Potgieter, Diego Appollis come into the midfield with Yaw Penxe on the wing. Jaco Williams moves into the fullback position (he does seem to have more BMT than Kunene – hopefully he gets a couple of games there).

Coach JPP have added the Sharks’ Junior Boks to his match day squad for the Bulls at Loftus. Additionally Tino Mavesere and Corne Rahl will add a bit more experience to the pack.

The Sharks will be up against a Bulls team with plenty of experience. The Bulls pack was dominant against WP and scored a number of maul tries. Expect more of the same this weekend.

JPP has selected a fairly inexperienced team (7 debutantes) for the first game of the Currie Cup. The official squad for the Currie Cup contains a number of the Junior Bok players that won the U20 World Cup in style but these have been given another week’s break after their heroics. Bathobele Hlekani who sparked one of the Junior Boks’ most spectacular tries has been called up to train with the Boks – so we will not see him hopefully doing the same for the Sharks soon.

Coach Plumtree has selected more URC players to the Currie Cup team. The Sharks will end up third on the log regardless of the result and will play the Bulls at Loftus in the semi final next week. So the match is really a chance for some more players to get some match time. Due to injuries to e.g. Andre Esterhuizen and Eduan Keyter this will be a chance for youngsters like Jurenzo Julius and Litelihle Bester to show that they should be part of the URC squad that will travel to Europe towards the end of the month.

Correction: John Plumtree has taken over the coaching in the Currie Cup with JPP returning to coaching the U/21 team. He has selected 12 URC players into the match day squad for the game against the Griffons. One has to feel for the young players that has been doing so well but with the first URC game a few weeks away it is important that the URC squad starts getting some match practice.