.gif)
The White and Black are at Newlands this afternoon for the first serious test of their Vodacom Cup campaign.Sean Everitt has been forced into a change at flyhalf, with Monty Dumond out injured. Barring a rotational change in the loose forwards, the team looks settled and will look to build on a promising first outing against Border last week.
Province, on the other hand, suffered a disappointing loss to neighbours Boland. Their team, featuring a good few players with Super 14 experience in the backline, is far better than last week’s performance would suggest and they’ll be keen to put in a good performance in front of their home crowd.
Kick-off at Newlands is at 3pm.
Vodacom WP
15. Jurgen Visser, 14. Dylan Des Fountain, 13. Frikkie Welsh, 12. Tim Whitehead, 11. Fabian Juries, 10. Willem De Waal, 9. Conrad Hoffmann, 8. Bradley Fortuin, 7. Yaya Hartzenberg, 6. Pieter Myburgh, 5. Martin Muller,4. Rynhardt Elstadt, 3. JD Moller, 2. Hanyani Shimange, (Capt), 1. Denzil Riddles
Reserves:
16. Callie-Theron Visagie, 17. Jean Smith, 18. Stephan Greeff, 19. Jody Birch, 20. Dustin Jinka, 21. Conrad Marais, 22. Marvin Christians
Sharks XV
15. Louis Ludik, 14. Mark Richards, 13. Jean Stemmet, 12. Andries Strauss (Capt), 11. Luzuko Vulindlu, 10. Jacques Venter, 9. Charl McLeod, 8. Luvuyiso Lusaseni, 7. Michael Rhodes, 6. Justin Downey, 5. Alistair Hargreaves, 4. Anton Bresler, 3. Wiehahn Herbst, 2. Kyle Cooper, 1. Patric Cilliers
Replacements
16. Hannes Snyman, 17. Sabelo Nhlapo, 18. Jandre Marais, 19. Lambert Groenewald, 20. Ross Cronje, 21. Jerome Pretorius, 22. Chris Jordaan
Keep an eye on WP #20 Dustin Jinka, awesome scrumy with a very accurate boot.
Proooooovince
A lil bit of ping pong going on here.
TRY WP
!Frikkie Welsh makes good ground untouched before popping the ball to Jurgens Visser who goes over in the corner.De Waal converts 7-0
brilliant play by frikkie, alistair hargreaves is soooo lightweight!
De Waal misses a super easy penalty
Yaya Hartzenburg try!
I missed the Sharks restart but WP ran it back and the ball went therough the hands and Yaya scores an easy try.De Waal converts from the touchline.
try wp….
@robdylan (Comment 11) : That Mark Richards kid looks half decent
@robdylan (Comment 11) : Early days
Oh shucks, I deleted a comment
howdy, Go Sharks!!
anybody home
@Jarson’s (X + V) (Comment 15) : I’m here…. sorta
De Waal extends the lead to 17.17-0 after 24 minutes
Welsh knocks on on the Sharks 22 and Sharks XV try and counter.Players not really crossing the advantage line in contact
@provincejoulekkading (Comment 13) :
Charlie’s having a forgettable day
seems our youngsters are slow starters, hope they finish fast though
GO sharks GO
someone bleached Shimmie!
we need to get Mark Richards to Aus, STAT!
Justin Downey try
I’m tired of having to watch recordings of the Sharks games
the only live game i’ve seen thus far, was round 2 against the C’tahs 
so many blondes in this team I can’t tell them apart!
Venters kick is good score is 17-7
@provincejoulekkading (Comment 25) : yay!
@provincejoulekkading (Comment 25) : that’s my boy!
17-7 36 minutes
@robdylan (Comment 27) : Coops, Pat, Hargo, Justin, Charl, Venter, Richards… all blonde
go sharks !!!
damn. now 20-7
20 – 10 on the HT hooter
Venter penalty. 20-10 at half time
Tomorrow will be exactly 3 weeks since ive quit smoking
@Jarson’s (X + V) (Comment 37) : well done !
for how long are you quitting
@rekinek (Comment 38) : for always
or thats the plan
why is half time so LOOONG?
Cant believe I am saying this but Frikkie Welsh and Willem de Waal looks good from a WP perspective…
Has Hargreaves put on some muscle?
Boy looks big all of a sudden.
And I am glad Jurgen Visser is finally stepping up – he straightens the line nicely from 15 when he joins.
Cilliers killing Moller. Sharks now have a penalty right in front
@Morné (Comment 41) : he has apaprently.
20-13 now.
Hargs is really getting stuck in, hey
you think this ref awards penalty tries?
bit of a poor decision from Ludik there
@robdylan (Comment 45) : he shouldve played S14, not the Steenkamp dude
another scrum penalty
sharks take the lineout
@Rahul (Comment 46) : only aussies dont
man, you can’t win if you can’t catch the ball!
Sharks have WP under such pressure and yet can’t score.
Kom nou Pa se seuns, speel hard en druk drië
Why is a try still called a try, n drie n drie? Score some fivers boys!
one feels it might just be a matter of time now
Rossco is on
number 19, Lambert Groenewald, is very invovled
sharks xv seem to have the same problem with crossing the try line. they should all practise that during the week… with ball in hand!
damn feed keeps cutting out
Richards – what a strike runner! Should play that kid at 13
another 3 to Venter. 20-16
man, it will be very disappointing if we don’t go on to win from here.
Chris Jordaan full of running too. Lovely to watch
Was ksa online this morning? i think he was in sydney with number 10 on his back…
damn. Coops blown for a late tackle and de Waal lines up.
23-16 now
These okes of ours shouldve been playing S14 already, by the time the oupas retires, these guys couldve been veterans already
Trompie scores after GREAT forward pressure
Test
23-all as Ross converts
and now the XV give away a kickable penalty
@robdylan (Comment 69) :
@wpw (Comment 70) : no testing allowed, crawl back to your Newlands hole
26-23
How much time remaining??
My damn phone is acting up!!
PROOOOOOOOOOVVIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINCCEEEEEEEEE
Western Province WIN!!!
26-23
Thats why i dont like weepee… cheats!
Yaya Hartzenberg had a brilliant game!! So too De Waal and Frikkie!!
damn – and that’s the final score.
@Rahul (Comment 80) :
Boet, you okes fluffed the line-out first!
Sour grapes there Rahul??
no excuses. We should have put you guys to bed with 20 minutes to spare. Poor handling finished us off.
but we could have drawn… opted not to. Chance you take.
I applaud the decision to go for the win, even though it didn’t come off.
@Morné (Comment 83) : @wpw (Comment 84) : I hope your Stormers can win their game
some exciting play, though. Venter at flyhalf looks more than capable at this level, while Richards continues to impress. Sharks XV pack will take some beating in the competition as well.
im used to it, lived in wee pee for many years and the fans are the same… wee pee too scared to scrum and its not the first time they pulled that trick
Well Jarson’s.
We supported u guys this morning so you should return the favour!!
@robdylan (Comment 86) :
I agree, it was the right decision, the Sharks would have been disappointed with a draw I reckon.
Sometimes it comes off, sometimes it does not.
WP was only in this game for the opening 30 minutes.
Should have gone for the scrum, not the lineout. We had their scrum under so much pressure. Bloody stupid decision to kick for the corner.
Good comeback having been so far behind, but at the end didnt deserve to win. I stopped counting how many´balls we lost in contact.
Still, were top of the log.
Richards is a great talent, but he lost 4 balls in the tackle, very poor.
Province running out of props when their scrum is being obliterated, smacks of cheating and Rassie Erasmus all in one breathe.
@rhineshark (Comment 92) : are we? Nice!
Lots of rugby still to come for the XV. This is no train smash
@wpw (Comment 90) : my life depends on it, so I will
@robdylan (Comment 94) : Ágree. Still hurts
Hope the Stormers and Cheetahs make us proud.
By the way – about to award Claytie a cool 1000 points for doing the updates here. You guys are missing out.
Still looking for match reports… 1000 points each.
@Baldrick (Comment 93) : Wasn`t it a mistake from him that cost us the under 21 cup last year as well?
Well done to both sides, just a pity Sharks took a little while to find their feet, but I’m still impressed with you boys. Just by the way, those of you who like to chirp boys on their individual performance have nothing better to do. Lets be honest, I don’t see you on the field out there. Lets keep it clean here, no need to be horrible… By the way Pierre… A liitle weird that you would know that about Mark, but maybe if you watch that game again, you will see that it was a string of mistakes from the entire U21 side that lost them the game, so lets just put all that behind us and look at the future… these boys are the future of Sharks rugby and we need to support them not demoralise them
thanks
@goose697 (Comment 100) : agree with you 100%, goose. Welcome to the site.
We’re going to be doing an interview with Mark Richards later this week!
Thanks a million Rob… wow, will the interview be posted on this site or where will it be, I would love to hear what this potentail winger has to say… maybe we can relate to him a bit better especially that there are so many Blondies on the field… haha
@goose697 (Comment 102) : yes – it will be on the site.
This blonde thing is crazy… watching the game on a really poor-quality feed, it was impossible to tell anybody apart!
HAHAHAHAHA… I just use the numbers to differentiate the players,
wow so the next game is in Empangeni this Saturday… Should be a tough game, I might make the trip out there 
@goose697 (Comment 104) : if you want to do live updates or provide us a match report, that will score you a cool 1000 points
@goose697 (Comment 100) : Agreed, it isn’t right to point fingers. But if Richards is to make the step up, and I firmly believe he has the talent, I watched the game and was hugely impressed with his work rate, ability and talent, he is going to have a hard time convincing the powers that be to use him in the next level if he loses balls in contact.
I’d go as far to say that he is possibly the best wing in the Sharks camp right now, because he’s not scared, makes excellent breaks and gains lots of metres, but he needs to be tested at a higher level, and he’ll have to show he can kick, take a high ball, and retain the ball in contact.
I’m sure he’d be the first to agree.
I hope that comes across as positive feedback rather than criticism.
You could see Richards getting really annoyed at himself after a while. To be fair he wasn’t the only one spilling the ball in the tackle. Was a bit of a Sharks XV disease on Saturday.
We have some serious talent in that side. I would like to see Mvovo play at 13 when he comes back to accommodate Richards and can’t wait to see Burden back in the mix.
Unless we seriously underperform this team will take some beating in the VC:
Cilliers
Burden
Herbst
Bresler
Hargreaves
Downey
Rhodes
Lusaseni
McLeod
Dumond
Strauss
Mvovo
Vulindlu
Richards
Ludik
Cooper
Snyman
Marais
Nhlapo
Cronje
Venter
Stemmet
@rhineshark (Comment 107) : you have two hookers on the bench and no loosie
Replace Snyman with Groenewald and you’ve got yourself a deal!
Thank you very much for that positive feedback, thats the right way to criticise a player. In all honesty though, this is probabbly one of the only games where he has lost ball in contact, lets be honest with our selves we cannot judge him or any player for that matter based on one game. Selectors look at all aspects of a player, through his past games both good and bad. There is not a single player in the world that has played every game they have ever played, perfectly.
I tend to disagree with your comment that he needs to be tested at a higher level, he is only 20 years old, if i’m not mistaken. I have found that players that are pushed too hard at a young age with out going through the very neccessary levels in rugby, u19, u21, vodacom cup etc. seem to fall off the band wagon, and this is not in all cases but it is in most cases.
So I do agree he has made mistakes, and I think learning from those mistakes should happen at this level now, this way his confidence will remain and he will work his way up into the higher level slowly but surely.
This is infact a general comment about all the young and up coming talent… It is important to undergo all the levels of training before taking the big leap… one must learn to crawl before you can walk.
@robdylan (Comment 98) : 1000 points?One time!!!!!
@robdylan (Comment 108) : I bow to your correction. Haven’t a clue who our forward replacements are – took a wild guess
@rhineshark (Comment 111) : you did pretty well, considering!
Look like Lusaseni might be out for a while, though.
@goose697 (Comment 109) : Interesting argument, half of Sharksworld is punting for the youngsters to get a chance.
I think part of the problem is the rumours of player discontent that are never quite proven but often mentioned of never getting chances.
The fact is, and as you rightly say, let a youngster develop. As long as he accepts that it will take time, he’s one for the future.
A very interesting study could be done on all the SA U19/U21/U23 sides over the last 10 years, and look how many youngsters played in those representative teams, and who went on to play S14 or international level, and you’ll see a heck of a lot slipped out of the system, despite being identified as the bets of their age.
There is an argument, like coaches, to develop through the entire system slowly.
@Baldrick (Comment 113) : there’s a missing step in the chain, though, when it comes to the Sharks. A player like Hargs has been developed all the way through the system up to Currie Cup level, but when a gap opens for him in the super 14, we rather get a guy of similar age from the Bulls on loan. You can’t tell me that’s not fundamentally wrong.
I agree strongly with both of your comments,
- I don’t think we can really put it down to statistics, we need to acept the fact that some players will make it and others not. Selectors see things in their own light we can agree or disagree, but we must understand that once a player goes through all the steps and makes into the big league he is more than likely going to be a sustainable player in the side, rather than a fly by night.
- It is very upsetting to see other players being brought from other provinces and countries into our local side, I would hate to see our rugby turn into the UEFA Cup, where our sides are buying players from all over the country and world. Instead of our boys competing for a position within their province it will be competing against the world…
@robdylan (Comment 114) : Agreed, he has been touted for years now. I thought he had a really good S14 last year until hsi injury. I already read that he got glandular fever in December and so was used more of a stop gap measure and then given to the XV to get game time. He’s got 10, 12 years of rugby in him, like the Sharks, he just needs patience.
Everyone wants to sommer play now and earn big bucks. Hell, if that happened in the real world, businesses would fold all the time because there would be 10 CEOs and no workers!
@Baldrick (Comment 116) : dude – that glandular fever story is rubbish.
@robdylan (Comment 114) : Blame my buddy (i’ve got two now btw….Staeuli and Jannie has joined him)