Jake White has sprung a few surprises for the Cell C Sharks clash against the ever improving Crusaders in Christchurch, this coming weekend.
SP Marais gets a rare start in his favoured position of fullback, with Lwazi Mvovo reverting back to wing where he is more accustomed to playing. Out of the match 23 goes Odwa Ndugane and in comes Tim Swiel as cover for flyhalf, on the bench.
The biggest change however is amongst the forwards where Ryan Kankowski and Keegan Daniel both drop to the bench, with Etienne Oosthuizen and Tera Mtembu getting a start. Willem Alberts will start in his 3rd position for the season, having played Lock and blindside flank previously and now completing the loose trio as No 8.
Cell C Sharks 15 SP Marais, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 S’bura Sithole, 12 Paul Jordaan, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Francois Steyn, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Willem Alberts, 7 Jean Deysel, 6 Tera Mtembu, 5 Stephan Lewies, 4 Etienne Oosthuizen, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis (Captain), 1 Tendai Mtawarira
Replacements: 16 Kyle Cooper, 17 Dale Chadwick, 18 Lourens Adriaanse, 19 Ryan Kankowski, 20 Keegan Daniel, 21 Charl McLeod, 22 Tim Swiel, 23 Heimar Williams.
Bigger pack selected so cannot see the Sharks opening up this game, set pieces seems to be Jakes target 😕
I know that kicking the ball aimlessly against the Saders will be very costly 😥
jake is playing our forwards into the ground.
and I’m not sure about this being rotation. rotating backline players who have been spectators for two games now?
shuffling is more like it.
This is a very good Shark side, by far the best balanced side and players of any of the SA teams.
Whether they will be good enough to beat the Crusaders in Christchurch is another question.
MacroBull wrote:
I think the balance of this backline is better than the previous weeks’.
The fact that he brought Swiel onto the bench suggests that he will either take Frans off sometime during the game or maybe change the backline during the game with Frans shifting to center?
@ nortierd:
I feel bad for odwa he is somewhat underrated. I have no trouble with the back line. SP should be full back and its fair to give fransie a shot at redrmption and get some consistency going.
The huge problem is the forwards. jannie and beast will have to be above average or the crusaders are going to monster those tired bodies that won’t last post june.
Okay never saw this thread up so put the team down on the teams thread.
Will see a huge forward battle and more of the same kick and chase. Doubt we will win this one, but there is rain forecast again for our game.
so to alerts. If he keeps playing like this there is no way he will play in the rugby championship
alberts
We just may miss kanko at the back of the lineout. But Albert and Tera does strengthen our Loosies. That is a huge pack of forwards put out this week.
@ Puma:
but you can still hope. Would be nice for sa Rugby if they could win.
bulls supporters have been freaking out about Ross being picked at openside. The sharks are effectively doing the same thing. They are really missing a trick by not playing jacque botes.
11 @ MacroBull:
Well not sure when a away team has won in Christchurch. Saders are on the up with a lot of their players back. Also right now they playing the best out of any team in SR. That is normal of them finding terrific form towards the end. At the start the were there for the taking. Not now at all in the great form they in.
12 @ MacroBull:
I don’t think Botes is ready because he was out most the season with injury. Or think he wouldhave started or been on the bench.
@ Puma:
I think the sharks will be more dangerous once they need to start chasing the pack in desperation and I said before the tour they will have one very good game.
botes was playing vodacom cup p this year
I mean if the bulls had jacque botes playing vodacom cup whole no.8’s were playing open side there would be riots at loftus lol
Video: Hero Cat Saves Boy From Dog Attack http://buff.ly/1iOiKbF, who says Cats ain’t a kids friend? lol
It seemed that JW is throwing the match away?
The maths is simple: he needs 3 more wins for a home field advantage which he will probably get back in SA?
Bonus points? what is that 🙂
nortierd wrote:
This may have been discussed already this week but I read an astonishing statistic about the Crusaders the other day…they have now gone (or are about to) 50 games undefeated in Christchurch against SA & Aussie opposition!!!
The last time they were beaten there was in 2001 and that was against the Cats!!!
@BB
Yep, they lost to the Chiefs and I think the Hurricanes in Christchurch this year, but against SA sides they seem to win before the whistle has even blown
BrumbiesBoy wrote:
BrumbiesBoy wrote:
its because they have hometown refs BB. no other reason.
.
Cant wait for the sixth SA side to join Super rugby, the sharks may hold on to overall first place if they played them this year.
.
as for my last post, I really fcked that up somehow haha
nga puhi wrote:
Nah, not even the Paid Peiper can get the Sharks a win in Christchurch.
Even though this is a decent Shark side, I still expect the Crusaders to win by between 10-20 points if they play half decent.
23 @ nortierd:
Hellooooo Achmed, the Dead Terrorist!
grootblousmile wrote:
Hello GBS
I keel you
Sharks_forever wrote:
This is just awesome T
Good old hero cat, give that cat a whole snoek
Well my picks are in and for only the 2nd time since playing superbru have I gone against my team. Once in 2010 when we lost so many times in a row. Now got Saders by 10. Just don’t see us beating them after last week. Not with the Saders in terrific form now. Had we played them early in the season around the 2nd game when they were out of form then we just might have. Not on Saturday I feel. Though if we do execute our game plan 100% we just may pick up a losing bonus point. Not even sure if we will do that. We have to stop the daft passes and dropping the ball when we in a good position to score. Our handling has been terrible. Our tactical kicking was just dismal against the Brumbies. We have to up our game totally. Still don’t see us winning it at all. If we do will not mind at all losing points on bru. Just cant see this Sharks team the way they playing winning on Saturday.
@Puma
You are not alone Puma, I believe most Shark supporters will also be picking the Crusaders.
17 @ Sharks_forever:
Saw that on Sky News this morning. Was brilliant to see the Cat save that youngsters life. The Cat had no fear at all even went after the dog. If it had not been for him think that young boy would have lost his life.
Also they say that Cat was a rescue cat they got a few months back. Well he paid that family back a millions times over saving their youngster.
Well done the Cat…. 😎
28 @ nortierd:
Yip we not going to win this one at all. I would have rested some of the over played players in this game. As no way will we win it.
Alberts, Bissie, Fransie and Jannie all need a rest. They are being played into the ground now. If we have no chance in winning why make them play? Rather save them for the next game where we might have a very slight chance to win. As we have had the Blues number since 2006. Then of course we played a different game plan.
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