The only Friday game of the second round kicks off in Durban tonight.
Will the Sharks improve on their, at-times awful performance against WP?
Or will there be an unlikely upset on the cards?
Kick-off at ABSA Stadium is at 19h00.
Sharks: 15 Stefan Terblanché, 14 Lwazi Mvovo, 13 Waylon Murray, 12 Andries Strauss, 11 Henno Mentz, 10 Andrew Borgen, 9 Rory Kockott, 8 Keegan Daniel, 7 Steven Sykes, 6 Jacques Botes, 5 Johann Muller (captain), 4 Alistair Hargreaves, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Craig Burden, 1 Deon Carstens.
Reserves: 16 Skipper Badenhorst, 17 Robbie Harris, 18 Nikolai Blignaut, 19 Skholiwe Ndlovu, 20 Charl McLeod, 21 Riaan Swanepoel, 22 Monty Dumond.
Boland: 15 Justin Peach, 14 John Daniels, 13 Piet van Zyl (captain), 12 Lionel Cornelius, 11 Alvin Hugo, 10 Elgar Watts, 9 Marnus Hugo, 8 Dries van Schalkwyk, 7 Frankie Horne, 6 Zolani Mofu, 5 Coenie Basson, 4 Cecil Kemp, 3 Andries Human, 2 Clemen Lewis, 1 Jean Botha.
Reserves: 16 Pieter Wium, 17 WP Nel, 18 Frikkie Spies, 19 Angelo Brinkhuys, 20 Neil Papier, 21 Deon Scholtz, 22 Stefan Basson.

Baritt has had to withdraw with a torn quad. Borgen will debut at flyhalf
Can’t see an upset happening.
@ra-cheltjie de’ be-er (Comment 2) : I can’t see anything happening. At Nice airport, waiting for yet another delayed flight.
not that fucknut Kuduclub are showing it live anyway
I have a bad feeling about this game,… the performance against Western Province simply wasn’t good enough for a relatively experienced team like the Sharks, carrying a few Boks.
I think we should feel very lucky this game is being played in Durbs, not Wellington…
On a personal note, really good to see Piet van Zyl getting the captaincy reins. He’s a very underrated player, had a fantastic World Cup (I’m very surprised he didn’t take up a french club offer), & to top it off he’s a fantastic bloke!
GO SHARKS, with Piet van Zyl to score a consolation brace!
Hello Roberto…
So when are we braaing chez Otto
?
how’s sometime early July, Le R?
@Le Requinny (Comment 5) : Piet is the only Bolander in my FL team, so no complaints if he scores, so long as we get 4 and win by 50
What do you know of Borgen?
I hope this Borgen is a “real” prospect… not another Monty D or Scott Spedding…
Does anyone know who Dumond played for in France recently? Wasn’t his old club Racing Metro, that I know, though they did feature a Sharks fullback (Greg Goosen) at fullback. Come to think of it, we could do with Greg Goosen back…who else is there after Oubaas White-earth retires, & at the risk of not upsetting Fransina Steyn nor bringing Brett Hennessey out of retirement…
what of your pal Dames?
BTW, I see Tiaan Marx has fokkoffed back to Potch
Nothing.
I don’t recall him appearing for Leeds Tykes, I’d have been onto that… The bright side is that Rovers generally don’t have duds at 10 – though were is Spedding playing his club rugger.
There is some Afrikaans flyhal at Collegians who is meant to be a prospect – any regular KZN club rugby follwers out there who can help me out with his name?
Quinn, I believe the club was Oyannax. Ever heard of em?
Dames, eish. He reminds me of Henno Mentz. He has the size & pace to be the real deal at 15, but his hands let him down…
Mind you he is only 21, and he did arrive with Leopards habits…
@Le Requinny (Comment 11) : Chris Jordaan?
@Le Requinny (Comment 13) : we’ll teach him Sharks habits… like how to lose finals
this game on in the UK, Quinn?
I’m boarding a plane in about half an hour… will hopefully catch the first 10 mins
Oyannax, they are in Div2, hovering amongst the bottom lot. Come from the Alps region, don’t thing rugby is THAT popular though – good skiing though
If he’d gone back to Racing Metyro he’d have played alongside ‘Gus Pichet…
nein Kommisar (wrt game)
@robdylan (Comment 14) :
mmm, don’t think so – was more hardcore AFkns like Riaan Swanepoel, but obviously not. Where does Jordaan come from, sounds familiar. Isn’t he a North Coast Academy lad.
Man, I am out of it – need to get back in the loop. This is APPALLING!
Actually, I think Jordaan plays for Rovers, mostly at fullback
Nice Airport does not have the best bandwidth in the world
could be that Rovers “recruited” him, like they always do…
You’re in Nice? I’m f%^&*g jealous…?!
@Le Requinny (Comment 24) : Been here all week. Lovely weather.
Have bad news re Johan Snyman, BTW
@Le Requinny (Comment 23) : I am such an ignoramus when it comes to the KZN Club scene
Going to board momentarily
Go Sharks!!
Le Req…what WC are you talking about in respect of PVZ?
Namibia
Sharks ain’t lookin good out there
@robdylan (Comment 30) : How are you watching?
Awful so far.
Playing like a VC side.
Who are these pretenders?
@robdylan (Comment 29) : Aaah …don’t think I watched much of Namibia!
@Big Fish (Comment 32) : Howzit BF
What are the conditions like? Spoke to my Dad earlier and he said it looked like it might rain later?
Looks ok – dull but no rain.
Boland just scored a schoolboy try – lineout, ball to hooker coming around, pass to 10, and flat ball to 12 – simple try.
Shocking play by the Sharks so far. I’m about to start supporting Boland.
And yet they had to speak about winning the CC this season… Why must we always wanna build castles without first buying bricks?
Please keep the score updates ticking lads, in Xiamen in China, no chance of any rugby over here!
It’s 6-10
@robdylan (Comment 38) :
So they have scored 2 tries? or try penalty?
Sharks are not going well, it would seem. What you doing in china, wors?
Only one try so far. To Boland
@robdylan (Comment 41) : Rob, are you watching game? or just getting updates?
@robdylan (Comment 40) :
Presenting a heap of visionary shit about a rollout of Oracle Apps throughout Asia Pac. Been hectic with trying to teach Americans how to drink and some of the locals here are really rough! Had a few run ins. Flying to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow, can’t wait to get through Chinese customs!
And Botes scores. It’s 11-10
H/T score is 11-10 Sharks.
Truly inept performance though. This is like watching schools rugby.
Eish….11-10 to Sharks. Good job I didnt predict a runaway victory on Superbru!
@Villie (Comment 46) :
I wouldn’t be predicting a victory too confidently either – we are stuffing up constantly.
@Big Fish (Comment 47) : How is Borgen looking so far? And what sort of build is he?
We’re playing like clowns. The passes out wide…I think I’ve seen one go to hand on attack. What the freak?
I see Skipper is on for Burden and Monty Dumond for Borgen now!
Rory injured and off.
Has Mvovo touched the ball?
@klempie (Comment 51) : Nooit man. How bad? He’s our only bright spark!!
Dumond puts it over.
Sharks 14 – 10 Boland
@Villie (Comment 53) : He was limping off. Didn’t look too distraught so hopefully not too bad.
Yellow card. I think they should go for lineout now.
Borgen was ok – seems like he has some size, pace and skills, but nothing revolutionary.
Klempie, its like they completely forgot how to catch a ball or step.
Have we been over-doing the gym and neglecting the skills training?
Ughhhh…they’re taking the 3 against 14 men. Sad.
Dumond puts it over.
Sharks 17 – 10 Boland
@Big Fish (Comment 57) : Agreed.
I guess we not going to get any BP’s tonight again then?
I blame KSA…he’s the jinx!
HAHA…Another card…think for coming in from the side. Boland down to 13.
Great maul from the Sharks and I think Jaques’ got another.
Yup it’s there.
Sharks 22 – 13 Boland
Monty puts it over
Sharks 24 – 13 Boland
This is quite poor.
Sharks pushed off their own ball at scrum time.
@ra-cheltjie de’ be-er (Comment 66) : Bulls are gonna drill us.
@ra-cheltjie de’ be-er (Comment 67) : Where are you seeing this game?
Try Sharks.
Quick thinking gets Swanepoel over.
Sharks 31 – 13 Boland
@Villie (Comment 69) : mediazone dot com
Injury time…Sharks trying for the BP.
Try Mentz.
Mentz over!!
BP!!
The last pass was forward but screw it.
I had the Sharks by 26 or so on superbru.
Monty from the touch line
FT Sharks 38 – 13 Boland
Guess I’ll take it but was an awful game.
Sharks leave it late, fortunately get a bonuspoint.
Botes MOM.
ra-cheltjie…waar’s jy?
Lucky BP there.
I have to wonder what contribution Bashford is making considering the awful play we have had from the backs all season.
I can sort of understand the breakdown woes what with the players playing so many different versions of the rules; although that must surely be addressed asap by working on the support-runners and number of guys committed to the rucks; but the backs totally lack structure on attack and don’t even think about switching running lined or having a runner coming in shallow…
Amongst the forwards, Daniel played a good 8th man game and showed that he could be effective if the other members of the loose trio are balanced, while Dumond and Charl Mcleod were superb – I have rated Mcleod for a while, but Dumond was far, far better than I expected.
@klempie (Comment 80) : Londres
@ra-cheltjie de’ be-er (Comment 82) : aka London?
@klempie (Comment 83) : Yip.
Should just add, what made Dumond so effective on attack was that he didnt stand shallow. This is contrary to the SA norm for 10′s nowadays (except for Liefling who plays 10 from fullback), and meant that he could run into space and also run a line which brought in his support runners.
I really think we don’t spend nearly enough time thinking about support play, as well as the associated topics of standing up or passing through the tackle.
@ra-cheltjie de’ be-er (Comment 84) : ongelukkig
another piss poor Sharks performance for 60 minutes…. they looked ok against 14 men towards the end….. as someone else here commented and capt. Muller said in his post match interview ” the Bulls are going to destroy us if we play like this next weekend”
another disappointing game, I cant see Sykes improving on the flank,and Waylon M……….
Evening all. Well that was yet another disappointing performance by the Sharks.
Don’t know what has happened to Waylon Murray.
amateur club rugby usually looks better than this, and considering WP arent playing much better, i wouldnt be surprised if the Bulls win that game tomorrow
cant see he sharks backline scoring tries, Nikolai Blignaut will never step up, but Skholiwe Ndlovu had a good game
@spykerbaard (Comment 91) :
Can’t agree with you more. Was really hoping to see an improvement on last week’s game.
Seems like everyone has left – going to call it a day. Have a good evening.
hi Ness, i dont know how they could be playing so bad
@morneL (Comment 92) :
Blignaut was useless!
@spykerbaard (Comment 94) :
Hi Spyker – it is so disappointing. I know we are missing a lot of players but we still have some really good players there. Our forwards are fine – our back line is really bad.
Why is it we don’t seem to be able to catch the ball???
Hi Nessa!
I think we need to look at the coaching structures – too many players are under-performing.
the scrums were ok… sheez, this team has some improving to do…. oh well, g’night
Do I need to write another stinker?
@robdylan (Comment 99) :
Afraid so.
At least we haven’t heard anything about the humidity yet.
Scary thing is that the Sharks history shows that they are very slow to react to the need for structural or administrative changes – witness the Putt fiasco.
If the problem really lies there, they could end up prevaricating until its too late.
@Villie (Comment 61) :
I left early and that was when we scored the BP try.
@KSA Shark © (Comment 101) :
I AM JOKING OF COURSE!!!!!!!!!!!
I will never leave a match before the final whistle, even if we are 100-0 down.
I said to the guy in front of me once the hooter went and we had the ball “watch us play the best rugby of the match now after the hooter has gone”
He just turned and GRINNED at me when we scored.
@robdylan (Comment 44) :
36min into the 1st half and we lead for the first time
I was not a happy chap.
The Youngest kettelet actually fell asleep……..
@klempie (Comment 56) :
I dunno if you guys could hear what the ref was saying on TV, but from the stands it looked like he gave the Boland guys a final warning about 10 times.
And then finally he gave two.