Michael Horak has made a fair few changes to his Sharks XV side ahead of their third match, against Namibia at King Zwelithini Stadium in Umlazi on Saturday. Some have been necessitated through injury, while others are purely rotational.
Perhaps the biggest comes at flyhalf, where a knock to Inny-Christian Radebe opens the door for varsity rugby hero Tristan Tedder to start for the first time. Experienced Stefan Ungerer comes in at scrumhalf to help the young Tedder, while there’s Super Rugby experience outside him too in the form of Heimar Williams. Wandi Mjekevu is another who sits out, with Marius Louw starting at outside centre, while Legend Marwana, Neil Maritz and Alrin Eksteen comprise an unchanged back three.
Juan Schoeman starts at loosehead prop for Mzamo Majola, with Kerron van Vuuren (whom I’m assured is eligible to play actual rugby) starts at hooker for injured Andy du Plessis. Ruan Kramer and the lock paring of Dave McDuling and TJ Uanivi retain their places, as do open side flank and captain Khaya Majola and number 8 Retief Marais. Fit-again Johan du Toit is back on the blind side in place of Christiaan de Bruin in the final change to the starting team.
Horak is slowly but surely introducing men who have done the business for him in that other competition this year; this week, Johnnie Meyer, Curwin Bosch and Sibusiso Nkosi all make their way onto the bench; the latter two players have been with the Junior Boks in Cape Town for the last fortnight.
Sharks XV: 15. Alrin Eksteen, 14. Neil Maritz, 13. Marius Louw, 12. Heimar Williams, 11. Nkululeko Marwana, 10. Tristan Tedder, 9. Stefan Ungerer, 8. Retief Marais, 7. Johan du Toit, 6. Khaya Majola (capt), 5. Tjiuee Uanivi, 4. David McDuling, 3. Ruan Kramer, 2. Kerron van Vuuren, 1. Juan Schoeman
Subs: 16: Stephan Coetzee, 17 Barend Potgieter, 18 John-Herbert Meyer, 19 Wian Vosloo, 20 Dylan Marcus, 21 Curwin Bosch, 22 Sibusiso Nkosi
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Look on paper this is a young but pretty talented team. Not sure im totally convinced by the forward grunt we have but they are pretty decently rated guys. At the end of the day it comes down to execution and motivation…and that seems to be the problem for this side. Hoping they turn it around in Umlazi
@SheldonK (Comment 1) : The Namibian side is not great at all. This MUST be a WIN for this side, youth aside, a winning culture is needed at the Sharks. Expecting a tough encounter, but a winning encounter
@Vonno13 (Comment 2) : I cant imagine the Namibian side being much good at all. Although i thought that of Border too. Boland were fairly decent i guess. My concern is that we seem to have a lot of highly rated juniors but they seem to be struggling to impose themselves at the senior level. Still willing to give them benefit of the doubt though
3 out of 23 🙄 not good enough and they playing in umlazi so what does that say? So much for inspiring the youth in the townships to take up the sport. Bleh waste of talent and waste of time especially since this competitions means nothing I wonder if they think things through when they do these kind of things
@Poisy (Comment 4) : So what would your team look like for a game in Chatsworth? 😈
@Salmonoid the Subtle (Comment 5) : not 3 out of 23 either and that is besides the point. It needs a bigger mix than what it has for this game especially for where they playing.
@Poisy (Comment 6) : you mean 22. The power that be are still going with that stupid 7 subs only rule….
@gregkaos (Comment 7) : really idiotic to be still playing with 22 players whilst the rest of the world plays with 23!!!!!
Im not too bothered if we’re losing these games. We have a very young squad. Glad we’re taking the game to the townships. Nice to see ungerer back.
Sibusiso Nkosi is one to keep a eye on as next year jpp is gone and odwa should retire
so im looking forward to seeing a backline of wandile mjekevu at 13, mvovo and sithole on the wings and willie at fb in SR at some point with nkosi on the bench
should willie get injured. Mvovo takes his place wandile moves to the wing and jordan comes in off the bench
not that i dont rate jordan, i feel wandile bring size as well as speed. Would rotate them in relation to the opposition
seems hiemar and andre are our only options at 12, Could play jordan there as he has with whitehead in the past
this CC team actually makes me happier than the SR team right now cause theres a lot of potential there
@SheldonK (Comment 3) : That Border side did also beat the Lions in Joburg, though…
Good luck, men…
@pastorshark (Comment 10) : Yeh look i believe they did, but looking at the names in that Border side i cant help but think it was more poor play from the Sharks/Lions than anything good from Border
@SheldonK (Comment 12) :
Fair enough…but it does show that the Border guys aren’t palookas…
@pastorshark (Comment 13) : They probably are slightly palookas for staying at a bankrupt union…but thats a different issue.