News from the sharks is that a full strength team for saturday is possible bar 4 players that that are still on the injury list.

The Players being Keegan Daniel, Adriaan Jacobs Louis Ludick  and Ryan kankowski, Good news is that Johann Muller will return with other news being that Lambie will be available for selection even though he was named in the Springbok Under 20 squad.

As for players like Murray and Mvovo who played Vodacom cup last week, one waits to see if they played well enough to return to the Super 14 squad.

THE winless Lions may have suddenly woken up to the fact that they desperately need a defensive coach, but the Sharks will be determined to produce another high intensity performance this Saturday to ensure that there is at least one more week of woes for their inland foes.

The acquisition of experienced former All Black flyhalf, Carlos Spencer, has failed to inspire the Lions during this season’s Super 14 campaign.This season the Lions have rather resembled meek pussycats on defence, conceding 43 tries – four of which came during the first 16 minutes of their game against the Reds this past weekend – and have belatedly admitted they will view the appointment of a defensive coach as a priority.

However, Sharks coach John Plumtree has emphasised that there is no chance they will expect to arrive at Coca-Cola Park on Saturday and tame the Lions without a fight.

“The Lions have only played one South African side this season, against the Stormers early on, and it was quite a close affair. You’re always going to get that extra passion for a South African derby.

“It is a leveller to a degree and I don’t think past results mean anything when it comes to games like this.

“They’ll be seriously up for it and we have no right to be complacent because we have hardly set the world on fire ourselves, and so we have to make sure our attitude is really good when we go out there.”

Yesterday, the Sharks returned to training after being given a few days off to have a break and enjoy the bye, but Plumtree promised that a week of intense work lay ahead.

“We’ve got three wins in a row, which is a real positive, and then had this break that can either be good or you can lose momentum. You can only really answer that question after the game, but we’ll do heaps of work to get our game going again.

“The message is pretty simple, we can’t afford to drop a game and virtually every match is like a final as far as we’re concerned, so there can’t be the slightest let off in terms of intensity.”

The Sharks have recently also latched onto a style of play that has worked wonders as they’ve found a way to get the best out of the personnel at their disposal.

Playing to their strengths as well as to the new law applications, they’ve turned to their forwards to do a lot of unglamorous but effective work, with the sound set-pieces, bashing ball-carries and rewarding rolling mauls laying the foundation for a new way to win.

Plumtree emphasised that they would need to continue accurately executing the various aspects of their game that have been working for them of late.

“Nothing changes in terms of our game; which suits this team. Some of the big scores the Lions have had against them have come from fairly decent attacks, so we have to work really hard to get into a position of the field where we can launch.

“It’s crucial to be patient, hold on to the ball and do the things we’ve been doing that have led to the last three wins.

“Our defence has to be good as well because we have conceded too many tries by our standards and we need to tighten up in that area, which has been the message to the boys.”

Meanwhile, on the injury front, lock Johann Muller looks set to come back into selection contention after missing the last two games with a finger injury, but unfortunately Keegan Daniel is still battling with a shoulder injury that is likely to keep him sidelined.

Saturday’s match kicks-off at 5.05pm.