Sean Everitt’s Sharks XV will head down to Nelspruit on Friday evening knowing that a bonus-point victory is required in order to give them the best chance of a home quarter-final.
Having lost only twice in their seven matches to date, the Sharks XV side can finish no lower than fourth on the South Section table – largely thanks to the nine points docked from the EP Kings – and have thus already qualified for the play-offs. Currently third on the log, three points behind Western Province and four ahead of the Cheetahs, only a resounding win against the Pumas, coupled with an unlikely away loss to the Leoaprds for Province, will see them finish in second spot.
The unbeaten Pampas XV should sew up top spot – as well as maintain their perfect record – when they play the Welwitschias in Windhoek on Saturday.
SA Rugby han’t confirmed how the quarter-finals will work yet, but it looks as though they will take place within each section, meaning the 3rd-placed team on the South Section log will play the second-placed team at the latter’s home ground. It’s looking like a quarter-final against Province for the Sharks XV, in that case, with only home ground advantage still to be decided.
Everitt will be able to take a strong team down to Nelspruit, with Jean Deysel sure to continue his comeback with another strong performance for the Vodacom Cup side. Craig Burden and Kyle Cooper will, as always, provide an interesting selection dilemma at hooker, while there is a possibility that one or two fringe players from the Super Rugby squad will be sent along to get some valuable game time this week.
Right wing Mark Richards, who is the second-highest try scorer for the team this season with four touchdowns, looks likely to miss the trip, having injured his ankle last week.
Go Sharks XV!!!
We should be able to over power the Pumas.
Hoffman will go with, starting at 9 with Reinach on the bench. It is highly unlikely that wp will not get a 5 pointer against the leopards. But we will keep our hopes up high they don’t.
Go Sharks XV and make us proud. It is going to be tough.
Go go go go!
How does the team look? Is lineque and wilmare in the midfield?
Hopefully Hoffman and Skeate are the ones to get some gametime; but it sounds like Skeate is in Cape Town…so doubt it. Maybe Paul Treu will allow Sithole to play in Richards place this weekend…i mean he has released Jordaan to go train with the SA U/20, but will probably go back to Sevens training when that is completed. Go for 5 Points Sharks XV, smash em!!! Won’t be an easy game though, will take hard work. Deysel!!!!
@Reebok (Comment 3) : Shweet…Hoffman really needs the gametime and we can see he really wants to get onto the field.
If it rains Guy can’t play fly…he does not have the long kicking game for those conditions; personally that is why i think we have lost both the games we have played in the wet.
@JJR (Comment 6) : Hoffman is in serious need of some game timme. I hope the sharks XV include him so that he can sharpen his skills. We may need him sooner than we think.
Rob ??
check out this sentence from the thread above??
Having lost only twice in their in their sevens matches to date, the Sharks XV side can finish no lower than fourth on the South Section table – largely thanks to the nine points docked from the EP Kings
I saw this morning that hose plonkers over at keo is having a go at Meyer Bosman, saying that he is so much worse than SBW. But I haven’t seen one inside center even near the caliber of SBW this season.
@KingRiaan (Comment 10) : They should stop shooting our players…WP was useless against Reds, very very average performance.
Bosman is coming along nicely…distribution is great, getting over advantage line. Hopefully Jacobs can play along side him soon; if we are going to win this tournament we are going to need Jacobs creativity in Midfield…his defence was also very good against Lions; it shows the huge desire he has to start for The Sharks and also play for a spot in the springbok squad.
@KingRiaan (Comment 10) :
@JJR (Comment 11) :
Bosman, like Adi, is a hugely under-rated player. Let the idiots at keo mouth off – it actually makes me more convinced that I am right in rating him highly.
Like mentioned, he has the ability to create opportunities for those outside him, and Adi is the perfect foil to exploit that.
@Big Fish (Comment 12) : I recon a 10,12,13 combo of Lambie Bosman and Adi can get the spark back in the Sharks backline for sure!
@KingRiaan (Comment 10) : There is a saying: Never argue with fools: they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
I don’t go there anymore – tired of the hate speech, racism and partisan reporting. I know sharksworld is biased but they don’t claim to be unbiased whilst punting their provincialistic agenda.
@Big Fish (Comment 12) : @Pokkel (Comment 13) : Can’t wait to see that combo – Lambie, Bosman, Jacobs should go a long way!
@Pokkel (Comment 13) : 4 sure, that would be great!! With M.Joubert coming off the bench with some experience(when he arrives)…i luv Stef, but just to be honest…he is not adding much value at 13 for us; he can play 15, but i am more and more becoming sick of seeing Stef at 13 instead of Adi. Again i can’t stop thinking that we need to give P.Jordaan some CC exposure, he will give us a lot off the bench, will bring good impact.Can cover wing and Centre.
Looking forward to another strong performance from Jean Deysel.
Sad to hear about Mark Richards, he really looked good against the Leopards. I hope they give the spot to Lindeque.
Kyle Cooper deserves to start again, Burden is just unlucky he took that knock in Empangeni that has given Cooper game time.
Bresler should play in the locks again, as should Swannie in centre, they give the team some experience.
In the loosies I hope Dan gets another run ahead of Kleinhans, he was quiet last week.
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 17) : Deysel still looked a bit tired last week…was surprised how many times he passed, would have loved to see him tuck the ball more and run over some guys. He was solid at stealing ball at the breakdown though. Hopefully he has gained a bit extra match fitness. The best number 7 i have ever seen on a rugby field in my opinion. Alberts is the best 8
Goota luv having both of them in the same team…is going to be Epic…MAN…The Sharks r awesome!!
My team for the closing stages of the Super 15 be:
15- Louis Ludik
14- Jp
13- Marius Joubert (I hear he is form is not that bad at the moment)
12- Adi
11- Mvovo
10- Lambie-ghini
9- Charl M
8- Kanko
7- Alberts
6- Deysel
5- Mossie
4- Sykes
3- Jannie
2- Bismark
1- Beast
16- John Smit
17- Eugene
18- Skeate
19- Keegan
20- Hofmann
21- Meyer
22- Oupa
@KingRiaan (Comment 19) :
No Hargreaves?
He will start in my team of course! Just did not put him in at the because of his injury
@KingRiaan (Comment 19) : no odwa? Keep oupa starting, vovo on bench and odwa starting.
@KingRiaan (Comment 21) :
But at the closing stages he will be back..
I think Odwa will progress into a fullback in the not too distant future, I still remember when he played fullback for a few games in the curry cup a few seasons back, and he was amazing. I dont think we can keep Mvovo on the bench, he needs to be on form come the World Cup. I think Oupa needs to be dropped for a game of two, I knoe he is the ultimate professional athlete, yet complacency always creep in when you know that you will start no matter what. It did wonders for JP when Plum dropped him for a game or two.
To think that a few seasons back, we had to scrape the barrel just so we could get a starting team together, and now you dont know who to leave out. I think Plum needs to be commended on building a quality side with this amount of depth
@KingRiaan (Comment 25) : JPP, Oddie, Louis, Hoffman and Stef can all play fullback. Nicely covered there. Wings – JPP, Oddie, Louis, Lwazi… it looks good.
Hi all
Sharks XV for Friday-
15.Prinsloo
14.Sithole!!!, Yes, keen to see how he has developed.
13.Pretorius
12.Swannie
11.Specman…personally i would go with Lindeque.
10.G. Cronje
9.Hoffman…hope he plays well.
8.Coetzee
7.Deysel (C)
6.Kleinhans
5.Marais
4.Bresler
3.Herbie
2.Iron Man
1.Chadders
16.Cooper…unlucky to be on bench.
17.Sabs
18.P. Marais
19.Big Dan
20.Reinach
21.Williams
22.De Kock…starting to second guess him a bit, needs to lift his game.
@KingRiaan (Comment 24) : As well as Odwa has been playing I wouldn’t drop Ludick for Odwa. Ludick has been playing some very good rugby lately ans he IS a fullback.
@JJR (Comment 28) : Nice team….should beat the Pumas by plenty….They must just not go to sleep in the 2nd half again.
I also believe Odders can be a hectic fullback…i know Ludik is a fullback, but Odwa still takes better options than Ludik. Eg. Odwa knows when to back himself and knows when to put ball to foot; Ludik seems to just go with the flow and runs into the whole opposition loose trio…he runs away from support too often for me.
@Pokkel (Comment 30) : Pumas are hard to beat these days…Sharks XV can’t be too confident or they could be in for a surprise.
@JJR (Comment 32) :TBH I haven’t seem the Pumas play yet
@JJR (Comment 28) : Do you know the Fullback Prinsloo’s first name?
@Pokkel (Comment 33) : They play with lots of commitment and have a competitive forward pack…good preparation for Playoffs.
@mikey (Comment 34) : Gouws
@robdylan (Comment 36) : thanks
@mikey (Comment 37) : How crap has MHS been the last Couple of years, Since 09′ they have been poor…need to start buying more players; they have the money.
You from MHS right, remember ur Face. Strachen?? Somethin like that?
@mikey (Comment 37) : thank you for the lekker comment on Twitter
Lets hope Rob reads this:
Where is my Sharks XV vs Pumas tab so i can do score updates live from the game?
@G West (Comment 40) : Would love some updates…want to know how Sithole and Deysel do.