Cell C Sharks Director of Rugby Jake White has named his team to play the Bulls in Saturday’s opening Vodacom Super Rugby clash against the Bulls at Growthpoint Kings Park.

Getting off to a good start is vital to the team’s tournament aims and there is no discounting the value of winning early to set up a platform for ongoing success. The team he has named includes 11 Springboks in the starting line-up with a further three on the bench as he has been able to name pretty much a full-strength side.

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Wing Odwa Ndungane admits that they know what is coming from the Bulls who can be relied on to play a similar style of rugby we’ve grown accustomed to.

“We know what to expect,” he says, “they always bring physicality and the back three can expect a lot of high balls to field. We have to be able to deal with their strengths, we’ve had a good week of preparation and so hopefully it all comes together on Saturday. On paper, we have one of the strongest teams, but we cannot just relax and expect to arrive and win the games. We have to work really hard and front up on game-day.”

Jake White admits that a big crowd will certainly spur the players onto a performance worthy of the team’s name.

“The first couple of games here, there’s a buzz in Durban, people want to come and watch games here, maybe to have the home games early on and get the whole crowd behind us is going to be a bonus. Had we gone away at the start and lost that opportunity for our home fans to come and watch this new team, perhaps they wouldn’t have had the same reward. For us, with the new set up, maybe playing the first few games at home and having the fans behind us could be a massive advantage.”

The match kicks off at 19:10 on Saturday evening with the parking gates opening at 4pm, the turnstiles at 16:30 and the curtain-raiser between the Tiger Sharks and Bulls Sharks (comprising Vodacom Cup players) taking place at 16:30.

Cell C Sharks: 15 SP Marais, 14 Odwa Ndungane, 13 Paul Jordaan, 12 Frans Steyn, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Patrick Lambie, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Ryan Kankowski, 7 Willem Alberts, 6 Marcell Coetzee, 5 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 4 Anton Bresler, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis (Captain), 1 Tendai Mtawarira
Replacements: 16 Kyle Cooper, 17 Dale Chadwick, 18 Lourens Adriaanse, 19 Stephan Lewies, 20 Jean Deysel, 21 Charl McLeod, 22 Heimar Williams, 23 S’bura Sithole.