Alberts: Adds bite to Sharks line-up
Sharks coach John Plumtree has named Bok duo Willem Alberts and Tendai Mtawarira in his run-on XV for Saturday's Currie Cup final against Western Province.
This means Jean Deysel drops to the bench with Dale Chadwick the unfortunate one to miss out and falls out of the matchday squad.
Steven Sykes returns for a start after his recovery from injury (which had him playing off the bench last week) with Jandre Marais providing lock cover.
In the front row, Craig Burden switches with Kyle Cooper.
Plumtree has retained the same backline from last week's semi-final with Odwa Ndungane adding further experience off the bench after returning from injury.
"The squad is all together now, we have been for a couple weeks, so there were fewer selection headaches for me," said Plumtree.
"We do feel for the players that are left out, that makes it hard on those who went through the whole campaign. And might not be involved."
With home ground advantage, the Sharks have been instilled as favourites, with Western Province themselves happy to take the underdog tag.
"It's a way of deflecting pressure away from themselves for them to call us the favourites," said Plumtree.
"They'll have their own expectations and they will be coming here to win, I am not buying into that.
"They are good enough to be here at this point, we respect that and we will go full out at them and they will be doing the same with us."
The Sharks: 15 Louis Ludik, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Paul Jordaan, 12 Tim Whitehead, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Pat Lambie, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Keegan Daniel (c), 7 Willem Alberts, 6 Marcell Coetzee, 5 Anton Bresler, 4 Steven Sykes, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Craig Burden, 1 Beast Mtawarira.
Replacements: 16 Kyle Cooper, 17 Wiehahn Herbst, 18 Jandre Marais, 19 Jean Deysel, 20 Charl McLeod, 21 Meyer Bosman, 22 Odwa Ndungane.
Date: Saturday, October 27
Venue: Kings Park, Durban
Kick-off: 17.00 (15.00 GMT)
Referee: Jaco Peyper
Comments
daibok says...
I agree with JayStarr - we are the stronger side on paper. It depends on what happens on wet grass on Saturday though and I would never underestimate WP . Etzbeth is awesome, Fourie a revelation as a loosie and Aplon can turn a game. Mr Habana is not bad also.
We shall see. Go Sharks!
Posted 12:59 25th October 2012
JayStarr says...
That's basically a full strength Super Rugby Sharks squad (as in the one who beat the Stormers at Newlands in the Semi-final) - they're just missing Bismarck du Plessis...
Western Province is without Tiaan Liebenberg, Andries Bekker, Schalk Burger, Siya Kolisi, Dewaldt Duvenage, Peter Grant and Jean de Villiers. OF COURSE the Sharks are the favourites John Plumtree!
I am a staunch Province supporter, but even I know it would take something unbelievable from us to win this one...
I'll be screaming as loud as ever at the tv come Saturday though !
The good news for Province/Stormers and for me, regardless of the result on Saturday, is that SEVEN of the players in the starting line-up were born in the 1990's..! Yet they have already made it to a Currie Cup final. And our u/21's and u/19's ALSO made their respective finals. So besides the fact that we stand a chance to end this weekend holding every single major cup an SA province can hold (Super Rugby Conference Cup, Currie Cup, Vodacom Cup, u/21 Cup and u/19 Cup), what is more exciting is the promising future for Province/Stormers. Whether we win it this year or not, it doesn't really matter - with this much talent coming through the ranks and quality coaches like Dobson and Coetzee, the dam wall is about to break at some point.
Posted 10:30 25th October 2012
ben7 says...
I really really hope that Paul Jordaan goes on the European tour with the Boks.
bok team
1.beast
2.bismarck (if hes back) otherwise strauss
3.jannie
4.etzebeth
5.bekker
6.brussow
7.alberts
8.burger (if hes back) otherwise coetzee (6) or vermeulen
9.pienaar
10.lambie
11.habana
12.jdv
13.juan de jongh
14.jp p
15.taute
16.strauss/burden
17.cilliers?
18.van de merwe
19.coetzee/vermeulen
20.hougaard
21.jantjies
22.jordaan
Posted 09:53 25th October 2012