The Sharks took on the Western Force in a warm-up match at Newlands, Cape Town tonight. This was the match thread for discussion of the game. See match summary below.

Check these stunning Photo’s of the game:

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Match Summary:

So the Sharks lost the game. But, like warm-up games are supposed to be, it really taught us nothing. At some stage I would prefer to have watched paint dry, than watching the game.

The two John’s, Mitchell and Plumtree, obviously had two different approaches to the game. The local John as expected said that he was happy with his preparation and that the score really meant nothing, where the Ausie John said that his first 15 combinations were tried and tested.

Plumtree admit that the areas of concern were the scrum and line-outs as well as the number of turn arounds. Both coaches admit that the penalty count of 31 was too much, but was expected.

Mitchell said that they will leave South African shores happy and content with the fact that they achieved what they set out to do.

The Sharks at some stages looked as if they were suffering from typical first game syndrome, but it would be a stupid man not to have seen the class in the second half team of the Sharks. The Stormers should expect a different team to the one that was on the pitch tonight come Friday.

It is difficult to single out any players in the Sharks team as the team changed way too much during the 80 minutes. Kankowski caught my eye and I think he had a “if you want my place, beat my performance” mind set which he obviously wanted to send out to Alberts. Plumtree obviously avoided questions around legal battles around Alberts, but did go as far as to say that he has already accepted Alberts as a Shark. Tank Lanning, a well known journalist, sat next to me and we agreed that Alberts looked overweight. Louis de Villiers from Rapport rates Alberts highly and thought he had a good game, a sentiment I don’t share. It is my opinion that Alberts will be competing with Deysel in the Sharks team this year.

Players that would want to forget this game is Dumond, Kockott and Ndungane. I had no idea what Plumtree was doing when he had a backline of Kockott, Lambie, Andries Strauss and Vulindlu next to each other. From what was exhibited tonight in the backline, Plumtree has no idea who he will be playing where.

To bet against the Sharks would be foolish. There is simply too much quality players. I expect Plumtree to start with his strongest team on Friday, and like all local derbies, this one would also be played with all guns blazing.

Like a mate of mine commented: No South African team likes to lose against another, warm up game or not. I, for one, am looking forward to great game on Friday night.

Scores:

Sharks: No score

Western Force: 2 Conversions Andre Pretorius, 1 Try Sam Wykes, 1 Try Ryan Cross, 1 Try Cameron Shepard, 1 Try & 1 Conversion James O’Conner

Teams:

The Sharks:

15 Stefan Terblanche, 14 Luzuko Vulindlu, 13 Waylon Murray, 12 Riaan Swanepoel, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Monty Dumond, 9 Rory Kockott, 8 Ryan Kankowski, 7 Jean Deysel, 6 Keegan Daniel, 5 Steven Sykes, 4 Alistair Hargreaves, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Craig Burden, 1 Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements – from: Bismarck du Plessis, John Smit, Johann Muller, Jacques Botes, Charl McLeod, Andries Strauss, Odwa Ndungane, Patric Cilliers, Willem Alberts, Gerhard Mostert, Patrick Lambie, Adrian Jacobs, JP Pietersen.

Western Force squad:

15 James O’Conner 14 Dane Haylett-Petty 13 Ryan Cross 12  Sam Harris 11 Cameron Shepherd 10 Andre Pretorius 9 Brett Sheehan 8 Richard Brown 7 David Pocock 6 Matt Hodgson 5 Nathan Sharpe (C) 4 Sam Wykes 3 Matt Dunning 2 Ryan Tyrell 1 Kieran Longbottom 16 Ben Whittaker 17 Nic Henderson 18 Tom Hockings 19 Ben McCalman 20 Chris O”Young 21 Mitch Inman 22 Mark Bartholomeusz 23 Mark Swanepoel 24 Josh Tatupu 25 Joelin Rapana 26 Tim Fairbrother 27 TBA 28 Richard Stanford

Date: Tuesday, January 26
Venue: Newlands, Cape Town
Kick-off: 19.00 (17.00 GMT; 01.00, January 27 WAST)
Referee: Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Matt Kemp (South Africa), Quinton Immelman (South Africa)