Rory Kockott and Juan Hernández have been selected to start at scrumhalf and flyhalf respectively as the Sharks take on Western Province in Durban this Saturday.
Johann Muller takes the captain’s armband back from fullback Stefan Terblanche this week, while Wiehahn Herbst has been cleared to take his place at tighthead prop. Deon Carstens and Pat Cilliers have again been bracketed at loosehead, with Big Skip Badenhorst winning his 50th Sharks cap at hooker. The selection of the stronger scrummaging Badenhorst is a clear counter for Province’s strong tight five, spearheaded by the in-form Tiaan Liebenberg. Coach John Plumtree has further tweaked his pack by adding the bulk of Mike Rhodes in the number 19 jersey, in place of the unfortunate Justin Downey.
Last week’s halfbacks, Charl McLeod and Monty Dumond are both on the bench, along with Waylon Murray, who makes way for a fit-again Riaan Swanepoel in the starting fifteen. Andries Strauss moves to outside centre this week, allowing Swannie back into the number 12 jersey.
15. Stefan Terblanche
14. Chris Jordaan
13. Andries Strauss
12. Riaan Swanepoel
11. Lwazi Mvovo
10. Juan Hernandez
9. Rory Kockott
8. Keegan Daniel
7. Jean Deysel
6. Jacques Botes
5. Johann Muller (Capt)
4. Steven Sykes
3. Wiehahn Herbst
2. Skipper Badenhorst
1 Deon Carstens / Patric Cilliers
Replacements
16. Craig Burden
17. Patric Cilliers / Deon Carstens
18. Albert van den Berg
19. Michael Rhodes
20. Charl McLeod
21. Monty Dumond
22. Waylon Murray
Double YAY! Kockott startin AND Muller as captain. Does it get better? Yes… Strauss is starting too…
You see Plum is coach of the month for the CC?
@molly (Comment 2) : richly deserved, methinks. And player?
Chris Jordaan ahead of Murray???? I would stick Murray on the wing ahead of that guy any day.
@molly (Comment 1) : i was hoping you were being sarcastic. but i don’t think you are. muller back at captain fills me with great happiness, not. and whats the point of giving juan a start if selfish rory is on his inside.
@molly (Comment 2) : not much competition except for maybe the griquas dude.
@molly (Comment 2) : WP Nel I think
sorry, that was aimed at Rob, my bad.
@molly (Comment 7) : really? The Cheetahs prop?
Hmmm… he has been good, that’s for sure.
I woulda given it to Monty
I would have stuck with Terblanche…
@molly (Comment 8) : it’s ok – I have big hands… I caught it.
You guys are just lucky I’m not excited about WP finally winning something.
@molly (Comment 12) : The disappointment is just too much
Oh, add a smiley smiley to that comment
kockott is a liability, he will implode, i predict a yellow card for smacking someone & wp scoring 3 tries while he is off!
@quota (Comment 15) : that would mean WP actually scoring tries… come now, they don’t do that, at least not with their backs.
@molly (Comment 16) : joe pietersen must be a prop…
@quota (Comment 15) : Kockott knows what’s at stake. He actually played bloody well against the Cheetahs, with no hint of aggro. That was after Strooli threatened to PK him if he stepped out of line again.
@quota (Comment 17) : no, he’s just poo.
You gotta love this weekend’s matches. With Boland playing Leopards, there will be 3 exciting “big name” games instead of the normal 2 (bar when wp plays boland in Wellington
). I hate one sided affairs (except when the Boks or Bulls play).
@molly (Comment 19) : Winnie?
@robdylan (Comment 18) :no amount of threats will dissuade kocky-rider from administering a “flattie” on duvenhage if he feels like it
@molly (Comment 19) : and juan de jongh? Since you’re on a roll
@quota (Comment 22) : ok, sorry, I generalised… keep on castigating. I think Aplon scored as well… are we up to 3 players? Not bad. Any of these tries against decent teams?
Hey molly! U supporting WP or has Rob managed to convince you to shout for the Banana Boys??
@wpw (Comment 24) : Lower Expectations means less disappointment. Its my defence mechanism.
@wpw (Comment 24) : but seriously, we haven’t been scoring too many tries via our backline, so its kinda fair comment.
@robdylan (Comment 18) :
Penalty Kick??:wink:
@molly (Comment 1) :
You know you are between a rock and a hard place when the selections of the oppositions team gives you more to smile about than your own teams selections.
@Prof. Ice Babe(Super Girl) (Comment 27) : let’s go with that…
Must say i find 3 positions quite strange…
1) Burden has been brilliant , unless the change is because of scrumming power concerns ?
Skipper does add a little more bulk?
2) Strauss @ 113 for Murray? surely it should have been Murray , not only faster but just as good in defence and he passes the ball
3) On the bench Downey has been dropped , again is this for Rhodes as he is bigger then downey , so i assume scrum power is worrying PLUM ?
Carstens is bracketed in with Cilliers ?. Is the injury concerns worse then we know ?
@Salmonoid (Comment 28) : or the selections are really crud!
@sharks_lover (Comment 30) :
May be Plum is being sentmental…giving Skip the run on for his 50th cap…then replace with Burden
“Strauss @ 113 for Murray?” asking a bit much aren’t you?
@Prof. Ice Babe(Super Girl) (Comment 27) :
Hey there…watch your mail tomorrow for some news!!!
Ok…wow – this is a surprise…
@Me2 aka Mama Shark (Comment 32) : lol , a typo king i am
@blackshark (Comment 34) : what is a surprise?
@molly (Comment 23) : you sound like those australasians harping on about our “boring” rugby, how do you expect the backs to be scoring tries if de waal skops everything forward?
@robdylan (Comment 36) :
Eh…the squad…
Chris Jordaan cancels our Joe Pietersen advantage…
@blackshark (Comment 39) : true
i would rather have played murray there
@blackshark (Comment 39) : nah, he’ll do ok. It’s not like Province have anybody really big in their backline anyway. And Jordaan is pretty elusive with ball in hand.
@sharks_lover (Comment 40) : I’d love to know where Zuks is…
@robdylan (Comment 42) : good question
He is a big strong lad , all that worries me is his temperament , he isnt showing the heart and bmt Mvovo is
another top of the table clash! hope the log leaders win this time…
Deon Carstens has an injured knee and didnt train this week…
Just saw Plum interviewed on Supersport Blitz.
@robdylan (Comment 42) :
Aren’t you stalking him on FB?
@sharks_lover (Comment 35) :
Me2….I never apologise any more>>>spelling or typo…who knows???
@blackshark (Comment 46) : well, he’s my friend, but I would never dream of stalking anyone
@sharks_lover (Comment 43) : he really can’t show that if he is not on the park on a consistent basis now can he? Look what pdv is doing with ruan, the boy needs to get his bmt back, so pdv slots him @ fullback..
@sharks_lover (Comment 47) :
Rob is a professional …
@Me2 aka Mama Shark (Comment 48) :
@blackshark (Comment 46) : hehehehe
@blackshark (Comment 51) :
@sharks_lover (Comment 43) :
Mvovo….now there is a young, up & coming, future Bok!
@quota (Comment 50) : I’d be quite happy to see Zuks at right wing in place of Jordaan. And Waylon in place of the Human Snail
@Me2 aka Mama Shark (Comment 55) : he’s awesome, isn’t he? Really like the kid
Let’s hope the good Kockott will step out on Saturday – so that we can see JMH…
@robdylan (Comment 56) : Swannie?
Gotto love this, Q&A on the Lions website with Gert Muller and Willem Alberts:
Which Currie Cup player do you fear being tackled by the most?
Gert: Willem Alberts
Willem: I fear no one
Which Currie Cup player would you most like to tackle and why?
Gert: Luke Watson – there is just something about him that I don’t like
Talking of the Lions, saw snippets of their game against WP. Henno had a shocker, kicked two balls out on the full, no boot there.
He was actually quite good in the S14. See him and Earl got the boot!
@Rahul (Comment 59) : no – Strauss
@Baldrick (Comment 60) : love it!
I fear no one!
@robdylan (Comment 56) :
I’d be happy with a banana in place of Jordaan…
@blackshark (Comment 64) : Caster Semenya would kick Jordaan’s puny ass!
@robdylan (Comment 63) : no brain … no pain
@blackshark (Comment 64) : right now I’d just be happy with a banana
@CapeShark (Comment 65) : is this the same jordaan that people were saying “he’s got Bok written all over him”?
it’d be nice if the Sharks would announce the under 21 and under 19 teams sometime before Saturday afternoon…
@robdylan (Comment 69) : sometimes i forget that this is a sharks website and i find mysekf asking who gives a hoot what the U21 squad looks like?… Then it hits me, i’m on sharksworld…damn!
@quota (Comment 68) : No, that was Jean Deysel who Plum said, “He’s got Boke written all over him”. Hell man, learn the difference between a wing and flank!
@quota (Comment 68) : ja… Bok…sburg
@Rahul (Comment 72) :
@Baldrick (Comment 71) : no man, i care less about what you phlegmatic sounding coach says, i’m speaking about bloggers!
Plus i can tell deysel from jordaan!
@quota (Comment 70) : True, you want Valke news, go to, um………
@quota (Comment 70) : Valkeworld was shut down because somebody forgot to pay the hosting fees
@Rahul (Comment 72) : that was hella sharp
@robdylan (Comment 76) : i didn’t even know it ever existed…
@quota (Comment 78) : it didn’t.
http://www.suparugby.com doubles as the “official” Valke site.
@robdylan (Comment 79) : It doubles as a website as well, but we all know different
Kockett always plays his best game the first game he comes back into the team, then he gets “Kocky” and we only see glimpses of what he could do without his giant head.
@Baldrick (Comment 80) : we do indeed
I`m still worried about Strauss and Skipper, this could have been a massacre had we gone with Murray and Burden, now I guess we`ll just have to be satisfied with a win.
@Letgo (Comment 81) : wow – talk about a blast from the past!
@robdylan (Comment 79) : According to Alexa.com which ranks websites according to web traffic, SupaRugby is even worse that Ruggaworld!
Ruggaworld: ranked 3 488 503
Sharksworld: 1 216 565
SA Rugby: 86 703
Rugby365: 841 693
Sharksrugby: 255 858
And the grand prize goes to…… Suparugby, the 6 552 678 ranked site in the world.
@Original Pierre (Comment 83) : Agree about Strauss, but Skipper might help to wear out Liebenberg a little in the scrums. Burden can come on just after half time and run riot.
Welcome to the site, BTW.
Yeah, I’m never around to comment when anybody is here anymore, so I decided to take my chance now. Especially since Kockett is a little bit of a sore subject for me.
@Baldrick (Comment 85) : wow… we have some work to do
@robdylan (Comment 88) : As do Suparugby who obviously are not quite so supa!
@Letgo (Comment 87) : well, I for one think he’s going to play a blinder on Saturday. Whether he chooses to involve the rest of the team, though, is a debatable point
@Baldrick (Comment 89) : it’s a bit of a bad joke, that site. I’m not sure why they bother
Kockett just rubs me the wrong way, I don’t like his attitude and that was fine when it seemed like he might turn out to be a decent player, but he’s just not improved since the first time we saw him play.
I don’t know.
What type of scrum half takes only every second or third ball out of the ruck. And how many times does he get tackled around the ruck, how many good balls does our fly half get? He might get a break or two, but only at the expense of trying 10 times to many. It’s anoying the hell out of me, play Mcleod or Cronje or anyone, Kockett won’t improve his game….and yet everyone seems to think he’s awesome and deserves a spot in the Bok team
@robdylan (Comment 90) : He will play one of his better games on Saturday, he always plays better when he’s been out for a while, like he has to proof himself again. He does the type of things a scrummy should to and then he gets to much confindence and starts to think he;s the only guy on the field.
They need to rotate him with another scrummy every other game, then he’ll be a good player.
@Letgo (Comment 93) : i like this plan.
especially that now with charl having played few games and gaining some confidence.
and I think Monty silenced some critics as well.
@molly (Comment 1) : maybe plum thought your guys need a bit of a headstart not to make it one -sided
@Prof. Ice Babe(Super Girl) (Comment 10) : me tooo. the man did well.
or maybe i think so because I ws never really convinced by muller as captain.
Well I can honestly say Monty certainly silenced me, I support him now to such an extenct I worry that starting Hernandez this weekend in a crunch game might be a mistake . . . I say bring the Magician on for the last 20 minutes.
@robdylan (Comment 42) : exactly – i have him in my FL and cannot get rid of
@robdylan (Comment 91) : uhm is my commission ready ???
@sharks_lover (Comment 99) : nice one… I owe you a beer
@Baldrick (Comment 85) :
And even with all it’s trash Keo is ranked at around 25073.
that ain’t bad
@robdylan (Comment 100) : lol its cool bro ,
@KSA Shark © (Comment 101) : take it as a was
Talk Rugby might not be full of everyone we like ?? but they alreadt taken 100 of the big regulars from Keo
Granted Keo will get more , but i think Rugby-talk is doing some damage
@sharks_lover (Comment 103) : that abomination of a site will not last…
Strauss ahead of Murray???
Kockott better remember the other 14 guys on the field…
@quota (Comment 104) : they’ll all be back on Keo before the season is out
@KSA Shark © (Comment 101) : They don’t rate on quality, just quantity. Or one site quotes would have to add a zero to its rating!
For those of you interested, here’s a breakdown from Alexa:
Sharksrugby.co.za is ranked as the 2635th most popular website in SA
iamastormer.co.za – 15 510 (this is the default wp/stormers home page)
lionspride.co.za – 34 168
thebulls.co.za – 2684 (just losing to The Sharks. Remember, their stats are hyperinflated by the blog)
vodacomcheetahs.co.za – doesn’t get a rank, too low.
And the non-team aligned websites (remember, this is Stats for SA popularity)
suparugby.com – 9005
SA Rugby.com – 921
SA Rugby.co.za (SARU) – 706
Rugby365 – 254
Keo – 186
supersport.com/rugby – 33 (that’s impressive)
morning all! its been a while since i`ve been on here, so long ago that Frans Steyn`s signing with Racing is a suprise to me!
what`s going to happen to us on the fullback front?? Stefan going to surpass Oom Johan Ackermans record? or is Lambie going to take over from him. A rumour doing the rounds that Louis Ludick`s coming to the sharks. any truth in that?
and i just want to say… well done to monty and charl. how great is it to know that third stringers can still compete as well as they did this last few weeks! (maybe not third stringers for long??)
@Baldrick (Comment 108) : some time in January I was looking at most searched teams on google (If recall correctly) and sharks were ahead of springboks
Who`s the ref for sharks vs wp?
@Original Pierre (Comment 111) : Jonathan Kaplan
@VanWilder (Comment 109) : howzit Van – welcome back.
The Ludik rumour appears to have serious legs, but there is, of course, the small matter of a Lions contract that he’ll need to get out of.
@Original Pierre (Comment 111) : Kaplan
@Sharksmad – The Blog’s Dudette (Comment 112) :
That`s great I`ll take him anytime thanx guys.
@Original Pierre (Comment 115) : he is a bit of an official official, there will be so much stop start stop start
@rekinek (Comment 116) : I disagree, I like Jonathan Kaplan, seems to let the game flow, without allowing negative tactics!
I was really worried we would get Marck Lawrence who blows depending where the Bulls are lying on the log!
@Sharksmad – The Blog’s Dudette (Comment 117) : Maybe we should send Lawrence to ref a Griquas match, that sorted the other Bulls supporter out nicely!
@Sharksmad – The Blog’s Dudette (Comment 117) : i quite like lawrence – he let games flow – and it used to work for the sharks.
as nasty said last night : it is not always ref’s fault
@rekinek (Comment 119) : i liked & laughed @ the fact that darren was the only one who didn’t pontificate about the incident, he sort of made light of it all & maybe felt the same way as lot of bloggers but obviously couldn’t say it on tv…
naas & owen sounded like priests “it’s not always the ref’s fault” have they forgotten that we’ve got a fine over our head because of the officials running rugby!
Happy Friday – I’m trying to pace myself before this explosion of SPORTS – SPORTS- and more SPORTS!
BOKKE! SHARKS!
@quota (Comment 120) :
Can you believe it??? I fell asleep during B&A last night! 
@quota (Comment 120) : i liked the stress on not always.
@Me2 aka Mama Shark (Comment 122) : i almost did – is it just me or darren loosing weight
@rekinek (Comment 123) : Definately he is!!! Noticed it last week…maybe he’s better off not having to travel so much….all that junk food and airline, even junkier food
@ Sharksmad ( Comment 118 ): I don`t think any Sharks fan could have a problem with Lawrence, he is the second best in the country in my opinion.
@robdylan (Comment 113) : Does he have a contract? I mean apart from the scribbling on the back of a bar napkin
@Original Pierre (Comment 125) : click on the arrow at the end of a comment to reply to it
@Rahul (Comment 126) : I’m trying to find out
LMS is going to be a bloodbath this weekend!!!!
Only Lions have no picks
Boland v Leopards equal picks!
@Me2 aka Mama Shark (Comment 122) :is the show that boring?
@rekinek (Comment 123) :he most definitely is…good for the guy…
@Rahul (Comment 129) : i am in Boland camp
tonight I may be dead – virtually
@rekinek (Comment 131) : Also for Boland.
I was worried when I saw all the picks for leopards!
@Rahul (Comment 132) : i was bit surprised. they do not look good at all – not that boland looks better.
OK. I am outta here – cheeeerio – enjoy the games
Kockett takes at least 5-10 seconds to take a ball out of a ruck, bring on Charl please, it will make a difference.