The Sharks XV take on the Pampas XV in Potchefstroom tomorrow night in the Vodacom Cup semi final, and the coach Sean Everitt has had his hand forced with a number of changes thanks mainly to new eligibility rules and call ups to the Super squad.
Starting with the backline, the Cronje twins are back as the halfback pairing as Jacques-Louis Potgieter cannot play and the coach has decided to make a double change with Cobus Reinach falling to the bench. Rosko Specman returns on the wing in place of Sbura Sithole.
With Marcell Coetzee named on the Super bench, Francois Kleynhans shifts to eighthman and Dan Adonga comes in on the flank. In the second row there is a complete reshuffle with Ross Skeate pairing with Jandre Marais. Kyle Cooper also gets a start in the absence of Craig Burden who is warming bench for the senior side.
On the bench we see Monde Hadebe (hooker) and Robbie Harris (prop) coming on as front row cover, and Peet Marais the reserve lock. Sevens star Tera Mtembu is the loose forward replacement. For the backs we have Reinach as mentioned earlier, and Heimar Williams (centres and wings) and Kobus de Kock (flyhalf and fullback).
The match will be braodcast live tomorrow night on SuperSport, so please tune in and support our boys in their attempt to make the Vodacom Cup finals for the first time since 2006.
15. Gouws Prinsloo
14. Mark Richards
13. Jerome Pretorius
12. Riaan Swanepoel (Captain)
11. Rosko Specman
10. Guy Cronje
9. Ross Cronje
8. Francois Kleinhans
7. Lambert Groenewald
6. Daniel Adongo
5. Ross Skeate
4. Jandre Marais
3. Wiehahn Herbst
2. Kyle Cooper
1. Dale Chadwick
Replacements
16. Monde Hadebe
17. Robbie Harris
18. Peet Marais
19. Lubabalo Mtembu
20. Cobus Reinach
21. Heimar Williams
22. Kobus de Kock
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This is still a very strong team!!
The Sharks XV will really have to play out their skins in this game…….the Pampas XV has been great this yea so far.
@Pokkel (Comment 2) :
Another unbeaten side the XV can knock out..
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 3) : They will have to defend like they did against the Stormers and they lost a lot of personal in one week. I really hope they are up for this game.
GO SHARKS XV!!!!!!
@Pokkel (Comment 4) : they’ve got good guys in all the key positions, although the loss of Coetzee is a real blow.
Richards is the kind of oke who can turn a game, though, so really glad we’ve still got him.
They should be playing the Free Staters who were robbed of a victory by some of the crappest reffing / touch judging imaginable. Pammpas scored a seven pointer off a massive forward pass that should have been picked up by the TJ who was up with play at the time. I dont know who the ref was but the TJ also did duty in the Stormers / Sharks game.
@robdylan (Comment 5) : Richards punched way above his weight last Saturday, he was really good.
They will miss Burden and Coetzee.It is time for the Cronje broeders to step up to the plate!!
This is going to be a real tough encounter, only guts and team play will drag them thru. The underdog tag will be in there favour…. I think
I don’t really understand why Sean didn’t shift Lambert to 8 and leave Frans at openside??? I also feel a bit down when I read that people are still surprised at Mark Richards’ ability to hold his own at this level. Mark may not have been blessed with the big frame that most are accustomed to but he’s yet to be tested at a level at which he’s physically, mentally or competently out of his depth. Go Sharks XV! Just 2 more hurdles to clear.
I completely missed the fact that Robbie Harris is in again. Good for him.
Wonder where Sabs is…
good luck boys
Mark Richards reminds me a little of Brent Russel. We seriously are going to miss Marcell in this game. He’s brilliant in the loos and tight stuff. Anyway good luck to the boys. Teach those Argentines a rugby lesson.
sorry to interrupt, but someone said that the sharks should be playing free state cause of the ref…
are you mad? pampas didnt qualified last season because of the refs and that last game you said… have you seen it all? did you watch the penalty try the ref didnt gave pampas… refs are prety bad at this level but dont say pampas are here cause of the ref, they diserve where they are cause they played really nice rugby through all this competition. sorry again, my regards and go PAMPAS go!
@[email protected] (Comment 14) : bienvenido a Sharksworld, amigo. Very nice to know that the Pampas XV has a support base too. Are you based in South Africa?
I was very wrong on the Skeate issue. Sorry. Iam often wrong.
@Speed7 (Comment 16) : good on you for being big enough to admit it
@Speed7 (Comment 16) : What did you say about Skeate?
@[email protected] (Comment 14) : No I didnt see the whole game. Not awarding a penalty try is a subjective matter, the forward pass was massive, nothing subjective about it. I like the Pampas and the way they play but they should have had 7 less points than they did at the end of the game.
Regarding last year, fully agree, they were properly shafted by the officials in the game agaist WP.
You are quite an excitable character aren’t you?
@robdylan (Comment 11) :
The front row subs surprised me a little to be honest..
Thus my question to you as to which was which?!
@[email protected] (Comment 14) :
Are you one of the Pampas players / supporters, if so welcome and good luck for the game.
Is isidro with the pampas or that urugauyan /argentinian team who spent some time in the cape?
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 20) : both of them played for the team earlier in the season, though
@beet: would like to see mark richards get some serious gametime with the sharks cc team this year.
@beet:any good schools rugby in pmb this weekend? See sharks game only starts at 7pm on .
Hope the sharks run over the pampas this afternoon.go sharks!!