It’s round 3 and the Sharks face Griquas in Durban in the first of a horror run that sees three games in just 8 days.
Kick-off is at 7pm.
Sharks: 15 Garth April, 14 Kobus van Wyk, 13 Jeremy Ward, 12 Lukhanyo Am, 11 Sibusiso Nkosi, 10 Curwin Bosch, 9 Michael Claassens, 8 Daniel du Preez, 7 Jacques Vermeulen, 6 Keegan Daniel, 5 Ruan Botha (captain), 4 Tyler Paul, 3 Ross Geldenhuys, 2 Chiliboy Ralepelle, 1 Thomas du Toit.
Replacements: 16 Franco Marais, 17 Juan Schoeman, 18 John-Hubert Meyer, 19 Jean Droste, 20 Tera Mtembu, 21 Cameron Wright, 22 Inny-Christian Radebe.
Griquas: 15 George Whitehead, 14 Ederies Arendse, 13 Tertius Kruger, 12 Jonathan Francke, 11 Adriaan Coertzen (captain), 10 Andre Swarts, 9 Rudi van Rooyen, 8 Jonathan Janse van Rensburg, 7 Shaun McDonald, 6 RJ Liebenberg, 5 Pieter Janse van Vuren, 4 Mzwanele Zito, 3 Ewald van der Westhuizen, 2 Abraham le Roux, 1 Devon Martinus.
Replacements: 16 Wilmar Arnoldi, 17 Nicolaas Oosthuizen, 18 Wandile Putuma, 19 DeWet Kruger, 20 Sias Koen, 21 Renier Botha, 22 Eric Zana.
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Two good halves lads, please
Good start – super offload from Nkosi and Ward scores
Bosch almost scores another – Sharks attack looking a lot better
Dan’s hands are much better tonight
10-0 Sharks
10-3
Sharks dominating possession and territory but loosing the ball at crucial times
At last Nkosi Try.
Little grubber from Am and Nkosi scores in the corner
17-3
Sharks dominating pretty much each facet of the game – just needs to pile on the points now
@Bokhoring (Comment 11) : They need to shorten their passes, also just show more patience, tries will come, also no driving mauls?? it is one of our strengths.
Nkosi one can see the lack of experience, but still very good,
Captain needs to get the players to slow down, play the percentages.
@sharks_lover (Comment 12) : The forward pack tonight has a lot of power actually – need to use that a bit more
@sharks_lover (Comment 13) : He just needs to work on protecting the ball in contact
Not a very clinical performance. Good aspects, but poor finishing. Scrum is also dominating but keep being penalised… tough day at the job.
First player being punished for kicking a ball through a ruck
Vermeulen scores after sustained attack from the Sharks
24-3
Juan Schoeman scores the bonus point try
29-3
Sharks definitely better this week, just more patience needed, Support play too could be a bit faster.
Mission accomplished. Sharks need to slow the game down now and conserve some energy for next week
New front row and lock and we still demolish the Kwas scrum
Nkosi is bloody strong – scores another one
34-3
With Botha, Claassen and Daniel of, who is the on field captain?
@Die Kriek (Comment 28) : Not sure, probably Tera
Droste has been very busy since he came on tonight
@Bokhoring (Comment 29) : Franco is the captain
@Die Kriek (Comment 28) : Marais.
@Bokhoring (Comment 31) : Thank you.
Welcome back Cameron!!
@Die Kriek (Comment 33) : A pleasure lol
Lekker man, team of liteys finding their feet and pride and having fun 😀
Hot dog! Am, Ward, Droste, Nkosi, Vermeulen had grrrrreat game
@SeanJeff (Comment 37) : Add the Tank, Dan Dup and Paul
nice win that, hey? start of something special?
Tank was man of the match
@robdylan (Comment 39) : Nice to see even with so many players out that this team is finding each other, eve with so many mistakes it looks good going forward.
Liked how the Sharks started to run into gaps and not just simply cluttering into players, players pumping the legs in the tackle
Ward is impressing me more and more
@Bokhoring (Comment 42) : For sure.
I liked the fact that Wright showed his love for the jersey, this is something we have questioned from the team.
@Bokhoring (Comment 38) : How could I forget the Tank, crushing the oppo, and Dan suddenly discovered handling acumen
Now the question is who of these guys are we going to have to give up tomorrow?
@Die Kriek (Comment 47) : Excellent point
@revolverocelot (Comment 48) : Think JL Dup and Am are pretty much guaranteed to be on the list. Others who might get the nod – Tank, Chili, Botha, Dan Dup, Curwin and Kobus. If we lose even 2 of those our rhythm could be hit hard
@robdylan (Comment 39) : Dare we get our hopes up?
Thoroughly enjoyed last nights game, even if there were only another 14 people in the stadium.
To be fair there was a massive pile up on the highway due to a shooting/hijack/pile up which gridlocked the entire city’s probably many unable to get to stadium.
Nkosi stood out for me he is a massively strong ,very quick straight runner, in the mode of dare one say it Jonah Lomu.Look after this boy and we have a huge star in the making.
Other boy who shone last night was Vermullen,we are going to have a loose forward problem soon we have too many.Tyler Paul is a great addition and the replacement lock not sure of his name was amazing runs like a loosie.
Sooner we start Wright the better.
Thats the good now for the bad, the enigma that is April,only gets worse when you replace it with Radebe who is far too frail for this level.
All in all watched this team play two games in 6 days, score think 9 tries and concede 3 point
Droste been a good workhorse for sharks thus far. Hope we can grow him.