Marais in for Sykes

Locking in: Jandre Marais

The Sharks have made one change to their starting team that will face Griquas this week, with Jandre Marais in for Steven Sykes.

Sykes suffered a knock to the ribs last week and is ruled out. Instead, Marais will start, with his brother Peet replacing him on the bench.

Aside from the one change to the line-up, John Plumtree has also gone with a five/two split on the bench, favouring the pack with the knowledge that Griquas will look to dominate physically.

Plumtree acknowledged the Kimberley threat, one that has seen The Sharks (and others) lose there.

"I think there are some who talk themselves out of contention before they even arrive there, we have to make sure we embrace the challenge, we know what is coming," he told the Sharks' website.

"It's at altitude, the ground is normally quite dry and it's quite different to playing in the major stadiums, we just have to embrace all of that and get on with it.

"We know we will go through times where we are under pressure, whenever we play at altitude, we're not quite there from a physical point of view for a period of time, so we need to get over that and attempt to play for 80 minutes because from all of our games at altitude, generally we don't.

"We've also put a huge emphasis on our defence, it's going to have to be excellent because Griquas love dominating the gain-line."

Rugby Union betting odds

The Sharks: 15 Louis Ludik, 14 Odwa Ndungane, 13 Paul Jordaan, 12 Meyer Bosman, 11 S'bura Sithole, 10 Riaan Viljoen, 9 Charl McLeod, 8 Keegan Daniel, 7 Jean Deysel (capt), 6 Jacques Botes, 5 Anton Bresler, 4 Jandre Marais, 3 Wiehahn Herbst, 2 Monde Hadebe, 1 Dale Chadwick.
Replacements: 16 Pieter Dixon, 17 Julian Redelinghuys, 18 Peet Marais, 19 Francois Kleinhans, 20 Brynard Stander, 21 Cobus Reinach, 22 Marius Joubert.

Date: Saturday, September 8
Venue: GWK Park, Kimberley
Kick-off: 15.00 (13.00 GMT)
Referee: Lesego Legoete
Assistant referees: Jaco Peyper, François de Bruin François
TMO: Shaun Veldsman