I hope everyone is still doing OK in these trying times. In the absence of any rugby (for that matter any sport apart from Belorussian football and Taiwanese baseball) StevieS has volunteered to create a few articles to keep the conversation going:
Hi, Sharks fans
During these days of lean rugby news, I thought it might be nice to delve into the old match programmes I have lying around to see what our teams looked like in the past and to see which clubs/teams were playing in the curtain raisers and who was playing for those teams. There are some interesting names, some which you may have forgotten. So, without further ado:
Date: 08 March 2003
Tournament: Super 12
Main Match: The Sharks vs Citibank Waratahs
Curtain Raiser: Natal Wildebeest vs Spoornet Bulldogs
Teams:
Natal Wildebeest Spoornet Bulldogs
Grant Henderson 15 Siyabonga Tiger Mangweni
Clark Manuel 14 Chumani Booi
Malcolm Areington 13 Werner Coetzer
Grant Oliver 12 Vusumzi Mbulali
Elton Jordaan 11 Ian Fihlani
Grant Rees 10 Gareth Wright
JP Copez 9 Josh Fowles
Zane Ansell 8 Pieter Pietie Loots
Jacque Deane 7 Gareth Krause
Jaundre de Lange 6 Derek Hendry (c)
Greg Rawlinson* 5 Eddie Blackie Swart
Johan Muller 4 Bruce Cumming
BJ Botha 3 Danie Thiart
Peter Bush 2 Hugo Horn
Conrad Magiera 1 Jane’ du Toit
Substitutes
Paul Hoffman 16 Johan van Wyk
Darren Morgan 17 Vaughan Graham
Roderick Labuschagne 18 Lee Kotze
Kuanda Ntunja 19 Sam Mtotywa
Neil Cole 20 Vakalisile Vido Nako
Kevin Williams 21 Werner Bester
Francois Barnies 22 Odwa Ndungane
Hugh Reece-Edwards Coach Kobus van der Merwe
Grant Bashford Assistant Coach David Dobela
* Denotes All Black player
The Sharks Citibank Waratahs
Ricardo Loubscher 15 Mat Rogers
Wylie Human 14 Scott Staniforth
Andre Snyman 13 Matt Burke (c)
Trevor Halstead 12 Nathan Grey
Stefan Terblanche 11 Lote Tuqiri
Butch James 10 Shaun Berne
Craig Davidson 9 Chris Whitaker
Brad Macleod-Henderson 8 David Lyons
Shaun Sowerby (c) 7 Phil Waugh
Luke Watson 6 Rocky Elsom
Albert van den Berg 5 Jono West
Philip Smit 4 Tom Bowman
Deon Carstens 3 Al Baxter
Gary Botha 2 Brendan Cannon
Andre-Henri le Roux 1 Matt Dunning
Substitutes
Etienne Fynn 16 Adam Freier
Eduard Coetzee 17 Rod Moore
Charl van Rensburg 18 Jone Tawake
Wayne van Heerden 19 Van Humphries
Ryan Walker 20 Paul Sheedy
Rudi Keil 21 Morgan Turinui
Brent Russell 22 Nathan Blacklock
Kevin Putt Coach Bob Dwyer
Clinton Isaacs Assistant Coach Andrew Friend
Note: The spelling of names is as per the match programmes, so apologies for any errors.

Some really big names in the Waratah team there .. also nice to see odwa make his home here.
That’s a pretty strong lock pair for the Wildebeest. 3 years after this appearance both made their debuts for their respective countries.