Super Rugby 2015: SA Preview – Round 13

The Cell C Sharks, Emirates Lions and DHL Stormers will all be looking to return to winning ways in Round 13 Vodacom Super Rugby this weekend.

The KwaZulu-Natalians probably face the toughest task when they take on the table-topping Hurricanes in Wellington on Saturday morning – a team they should know well. The Kiwis’ head coach Chris Boyd and assistant coach John Plumtree were involved with the Cell C Sharks previously, although it was in reversed roles.

2 Matches are scheduled in South Africa on Saturday afternoon.

All-out attack will probably be the order of the day when the Emirates Lions host the 5th-placed Highlanders in Johannesburg on Saturday afternoon, with both sides not shy to throw the ball around.

The DHL Stormers host the Australian Conference leading Brumbies in Cape Town on Saturday afternoon – both these teams lost last week and will want to clinch a victory to keep them in the playoff race. A bonus-point victory will see the Capetonians move back to the top of the SA Conference.

The Vodacom Bulls and Toyota Cheetahs have BYES this week. The team from Pretoria leave on their Australasian tour over the weekend.

Vodacom Bulls tour squad is: Jesse Kriel, Bjorn Basson, JJ Engelbrecht, Travis Ismaiel, Jan Serfontein, Burger Odendaal, Handré Pollard, Jacques-Louis Potgieter, Rudy Paige, Francois Hougaard, Andre Warner, Arno Botha, Jacques du Plessis, Pierre Spies, Deon Stegmann, Lappies Labuschagne, Victor Matfield, Grant Hattingh, Flip van der Merwe, Werner Kruger, Marcel van der Merwe, Trevor Nyakane, Dean Greyling, Morné Mellett, Adriaan Strauss, Callie Visagie, Jaco Visagie.

Hurricanes vs Cell C Sharks:

• Date: Saturday May 9 at 09:35 SA Time (19:35 NZ Time, 07:35 GMT)
• Venue: Westpac Stadium, Wellington
• Referee: Chris Pollock (New Zealand)
• Assistant Referees: Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand), Mike Lash (New Zealand)
• TMO: Aaron Paterson (New Zealand)

Team news:

• The Cell C Sharks’ backline shows 6 changes from last week – Lwazi Mvovo is at fullback and S’bura Sithole at left wing, with Odwa Ndungane moving to the right wing.
• Frans Steyn is back at inside centre, while Lionel Cronje and Stefan Ungerer will earn their 1st starts for the KwaZulu-Natalians, at flyhalf and scrumhalf respectively.
• Upfront, an injury to Willem Alberts means Renaldo Bothma is back at No 8, while Jannie du Plessis returns at tighthead prop for Lourens Adriaanse.
• The new faces on the bench are Adriaanse, Kyle Cooper and André Esterhuizen, who started at inside centre last week.
• Reggie Goodes, who is on the Hurricanes’ bench, is from Pretoria and represented the Blue Bulls at the Coca-Cola Under 13 Craven Week in 2004.

Stats:

• The Cell C Sharks have beaten the Hurricanes 3 times in New Zealand, but only once in Wellington (by 29 / 26 in 2010). Their other 2 away-victories against the ‘Canes were in New Plymouth (2004) and Palmerston North (1998), while they also drew in Wellington in 2008.
• With a winning percentage of 37%, the Cell C Sharks still boast the best record of any South African team in New Zealand – the DHL Stormers are 2nd on 32.6%, followed by the Vodacom Bulls (16.7%), Emirates Lions (9.5%) and Toyota Cheetahs (9.1%).
• The Cell C Sharks are on a bit of a roll against the Hurricanes, having won 5 of their last 7 encounters, which also includes the 13 / 13 draw in 2008. The ‘Canes’ only win during this time was in 2012 in Wellington, by 42 / 18.

Quotes:

Cell C Sharks Director of Rugby Gary Gold: “The Hurricanes are a team on an absolute high at the moment, their performance against the Crusaders was outstanding and this is probably going to be a big challenge for many of our players at this moment in time, with backs against the wall. We’re playing the best team in the competition, it’s going to be an unbelievable challenge, but one that’s going to make us grow as a group.

“From our point of view, we need to concentrate on the things we can do well, we know we have the ability to do well, even though we haven’t done it very often. But we’re a proud bunch of guys and this is an opportunity against the odds to step up to the plate.”

Teams:

Hurricanes: 15 Nehe Milner-Skudder, 14 Cory Jane, 13 Conrad Smith (Captain), 12 Ma’a Nonu, 11 Matt Proctor, 10 James Marshall, 9 Chris Smylie, 8 Victor Vito, 7 Ardie Savea, 6 Blade Thomson, 5 James Broadhurst, 4 Jeremy Thrush, 3 Ben Franks, 2 Motu Matu’u, 1 Chris Eves.
Replacements: 16 Brayden Mitchell, 17 Jeffery Toomaga-Allen, 18 Reggie Goodes, 19 Callum Gibbins, 20 Brad Shields, 21 Frae Wilson, 22 Otere Black, 23 Rey Lee-Lo.

Cell C Sharks: 15 Lwazi Mvovo, 14 Odwa Ndungane, 13 JP Pietersen, 12 Francois Steyn, 11 S’bura Sithole, 10 Lionel Cronje, 9 Stefan Ungerer, 8 Renaldo Bothma, 7 Etienne Oosthuizen, 6 Marcell Coetzee, 5 Marco Wentzel (Captain), 4 Stephan Lewies, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira
Replacements: 16 Franco Marais, 17 Dale Chadwick, 18 Lourens Adriaanse, 19 Mouritz Botha, 20 Kyle Cooper, 21 Conrad Hoffmann, 22 André Esterhuizen, 23 Waylon Murray.

Head to Head (since 1998):

• Played 16: Cell C Sharks won 8, lost 7, drawn 1
• Cell C Sharks points scored: 404
• Hurricanes points scored: 410
• Cell C Sharks tries scored: 44
• Hurricanes tries scored: 44
• Average score: 26 / 25 to the Hurricanes

Emirates Lions vs Highlanders:

• Date: Saturday 9 May at 15:00 SA Time (13:00 GMT, Sunday 01:00 NZ Time)
• Venue: Emirates Airline Park, Johannesburg
• Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa)
• Assistant Referees: Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa), Rodney Boneparte (South Africa)
• TMO: Johan Greeff (South Africa)

Team news:

• The Emirates Lions have made 2 changes upfront – Schalk van der Merwe will start at loosehead and Robbie Coetzee, having made a full recovery this week, has been included at hooker. Armand van der Merwe and Jacques van Rooyen are on the bench.
• In the backline, Ross Cronje will start at scrumhalf and will link up with Marnitz Boshoff, who shifts to from fullback to flyhalf for this game.
• Courtnall Skosan returns at left wing, Andries Coetzee moves back to fullback and Alwyn Hollenbach will start at inside centre.
• Faf de Klerk, Elton Jantjies and Howard Mnisi are joined on the bench by Ruaan Lerm, who made his debut earlier in the season.

Stats:

• The Emirates Lions have trailed at halftime in 7 of their last 8 outings, but went on to win 6 of these games.
• The Highlanders have never beaten the Emirates Lions twice in a row but did win the last encounter between these sides by a single point in Dunedin a year ago, despite the visitors outscoring their hosts by 4 tries to 3.
• The Highlanders have lost 5 of their last 6 Super Rugby clashes in South Africa.
• The team from Otago’s last visit to Johannesburg, 6 years ago in 2009, ended in a 27 / 22 win for the Emirates Lions.

Quotes:

Emirates Lions head coach Johan Ackermann: “It’s great to be back at home with a 15:00 kick-off. The Highlanders game will be a nice challenge and I believe a lot of their players will make the All Blacks side.”

Emirates Lions captain Warren Whiteley: “We still want to improve in a lot of areas, such as the scrums and lineouts, where we’re not consistent enough. The way in which we start this weekend against the Highlanders will also be very important, because we didn’t get a good start last weekend against the Bulls.”

Teams:

Emirates Lions: 15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Ruan Combrinck, 13 Harold Vorster, 12 Alwyn Hollenbach, 11 Courtnall Skosan, 10 Marnitz Boshoff, 9 Ross Cronje, 8 Warren Whiteley (Captain), 7 Warwick Tecklenburg, 6 Jaco Kriel, 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Andries Ferreira, 3 Julian Redelinghuys, 2 Robbie Coetzee, 1 Schalk van der Merwe
Replacements: 16 Akker van der Merwe, 17 Jacques van Rooyen, 18 Ruan Dreyer, 19 Robert Kruger, 20 Ruaan Lerm, 21 Faf de Klerk, 22 Elton Jantjies, 23 Howard Mnisi.

Highlanders: 15 Ben Smith (Co-captain), 14 Waisake Naholo, 13 Malakai Fekitoa, 12 Richard Buckman, 11 Patrick Osborne, 10 Lima Sopoaga, 9 Aaron Smith, 8 Nasi Manu (Co-captain), 7 Dan Pryor, 6 Gareth Evans, 5 Mark Reddish, 4 Tom Franklin, 3 Josh Hohneck, 2 Liam Coltman, 1 Kane Hames
Replacements: 16 Ash Dixon, 17 Brendon Edmonds, 18 Ross Geldenhuys, 19 Elliot Dixon, 20 John Hardie, 21 Fumiaki Tanaka, 22 Marty Banks, 23 Jason Emery.

Head to Head (since 2006):

• Played 7: Emirates Lions Won 3, Highlanders won 4
• Emirates Lions points scored: 149
• Highlanders points scored: 157
• Emirates Lions tries scored: 21
• Highlanders tries scored: 15
• Average score: 22 / 21 to the Highlanders

DHL Stormers vs Brumbies:

• Date: Saturday 9 May at 17:05 SA Time (15:05 GMT, Sunday 01:05 AEST)
• Venue: DHL Newlands, Cape Town
• Referee: Stuart Berry (South Africa)
• Assistant Referees: Jason Jaftha (South Africa), Quinton Immelman (South Africa)
• TMO: Veldsman (South Africa)

Team news:

• Juan de Jongh has been bracketed at outside centre with Huw Jones for the DHL Stormers and will be given until Saturday to prove his fitness.
• Upfront, Eben Etzebeth and Steven Kitshoff return from their break last week, for Jean Kleyn and Oli Kebble respectively, while Manuel Carizza replaces the injured Ruan Botha in the 2nd row.
• Kleyn will start on the bench, where Jones is bracketed with Pat Howard should De Jongh miss out.
• Brumbies prop JP Smith and his brother Ruan Smith are South African-born, hail from Vryburg and attended Paarl Gymnasium before relocating to Australia a few years ago. Ruan played SA Schools in 2008, while both brothers represented Western Province at Under 19 and Under 21 levels.

Stats:

• The last 3 matches between these sides have all been won by 10 or more points, with the DHL Stormers picking up 2 13-point victories but losing the most recent meeting, by 25 / 15 in Canberra last year.
• The DHL Stormers have won 3 of their last 4 games, while the Brumbies have lost 3 of their last 4.
• The Brumbies boast the best lineout success rate this season (91%), while the DHL Stormers’ 78% is the 2nd worst.
• Cape Town is the Brumbies’ 2nd favourite destination in South Africa – they’ve won 50% of their matches against the DHL Stormers. It’s only higher in Johannesburg (67%), but lower in Pretoria (40%), Durban (25%) and Bloemfontein (25%).

Quotes:

DHL Stormers head coach Allister Coetzee: “The Brumbies are a very good side. They’re very structured and don’t gift you any possession. They’re well coached and well organised in all aspects of their game. They’ve got a great maul and lineout (attacking-wise and defensively) and we really have to be up for this one.”

Teams:

DHL Stormers: 15 Cheslin Kolbe, 14 Johnny Kotze, 13 Juan de Jongh / Huw Jones, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Dillyn Leyds, 10 Demetri Catrakilis, 9 Nic Groom, 8 Duane Vermeulen (Captain), 7 Siya Kolisi, 6 Schalk Burger, 5 Manuel Carizza, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Steven Kitshoff
Replacements: 16 Scarra Ntubeni, 17 Alistair Vermaak, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Jean Kleyn, 20 Nizaam Carr, 21 Louis Schreuder, 22 Kurt Coleman, 23 Huw Jones / Pat Howard.

Brumbies: 15 Jesse Mogg, 14 Henry Speight, 13 Tevita Kuridrani, 12 Robbie Coleman, 11 Joe Tomane, 10 Christian Lealiifano, 9 Nic White, 8 Ita Vaea, 7 David Pocock, 6 Scott Fardy, 5 Sam Carter, 4 Rory Arnold, 3 Ben Alexander, 2 Stephen Moore (Captain), 1 JP Smith
Replacements: 16 Josh Mann-Rea, 17 Allan Alaalatoa, 18 Ruan Smith, 19 Jordan Smiler, 20 Jarrad Butler, 21 Michael Dowsett, 22 Nigel Ah Wong, 23 James Dargaville.

Head to Head (since 1998):

• Played 16: Stormers won 8, Brumbies won 8
• Stormers points scored: 301
• Brumbies points scored: 374
• DHL Stormers tries scored: 31
• Brumbies tries scored: 42
• Average score: 23 / 19 to the Brumbies

Other Fixtures:

Friday 8 May:

• Crusaders vs Reds – Christchurch: 09:35 SA Time (19:35 NZ Time, 17:35 AEST, 07:35 GMT)
• Melbourne Rebels vs Blues – Melbourne: 11:40 SA Time (19:40 AEST, 21:40 NZ Time, 09:40 GMT)

Saturday 9 May:

• Western Force vs Waratahs – Perth: 11:40 SA Time (17:40 AWST, 19:40 AEST, 09:40 GMT):

Byes:

Vodacom Bulls, Toyota Cheetahs, Chiefs