He was instrumental in the unexpected Round 1 win over the Sharks – Griquas’ only victory to date – and it’s thus not all that surprising that coach Pote Human has restored goal-kicking ace Nico Scheepers to the side that faces the Durbanites on Saturday.
Scheepers, along with former Bulls bad boy JP Nel, were left out of the side that lost narrowly to the Lions last week, but both return to the starting line-up named to face the Sharks, at right wing and outside centre respectively. They take over from Richard Lawson and Jean Stemmet, who both miss out through injury. Former Shark Gouws Prinsloo has been named on the bench.
Up front, big Aussie lock Rory Arnold starts in the second row in place of Patrick O’Brien, who drops to the bench. The pack is otherwise unchanged, but will nonetheless be missing a few big men; the likes of Hilton Lobberts, Lourens Adriaanse and Jaco Nepgen caused trouble for the Sharks in Durban, but won’t feature this time around.
Griquas: 15 PJ Vermeulen, 14 Nico Scheepers, 13 JP Nel, 12 Howard Mnisi, 11 Rocco Jansen, 10 Francois Brummer, 9 Marnus Hugo, 8 Carel Greeff, 7 Burger Schoeman, 6 Marnus Schoeman, 5 Victor Kruger, 4 Rory Arnold, 3 Nick Schonert, 2 Ryno Barnes (captain), 1 Steph Roberts.
Replacements: 16 Matt Dobson, 17 Brummer Badenhorst, 18 Patrick O’Brien, 19 RJ Liebenberg, 20 Jacques Coetzee, 21 Du Randt Gerber, 22 Gouws Prinsloo.
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So who thinks the Sharks will win?
@JD (Comment 1) : Well yeah. I always think the Sharks will win. 🙂
Ouens, when last did we beat die kwaste in Kimberly?
The Sharks need to adjust their game plan if they want to win im Kimberly. If they persist with a forward orientated game plan i cannot see a good result, we just dont have the forwards to do that im afraid.
@R Hayward (Comment 3) : Seems like it was 2009.
@Salmonoid the Subtle (Comment 5) : woah. That’s bad