Currie Cup: Western Province - Natal Sharks (11-08-2012, 17:10)

[TRF_Draggs]

Newlands, Cape Town (11-08-2012, 17:10)




Referee: Lourens van der Merwe
Assistants: Jason Jaftha, Marc van Zyl
Television match official: JC Fortuin

Western Province		Natal Sharks
Joe Pietersen	15	Gouws Prinsloo
Gerhard van den Heever	14	Odwa Ndungane
JP du Plessis	13	Paul Jordaan
Marcel Brache	12	Meyer Bosman
Gio Aplon	11	Sibusiso Sithole
Burton Francis	10	Riaan Viljoen
Dewaldt Duvenhage	9	Cobus Reinach
Jebb Sinclair	8	Tera Mtembu
Tyrone Holmes	7	Jean Deysel ©
Deon Fourie ©	6	Jacques Botes
De Kock Steenkamp	5	Jandre Marais
Don Armand	4	Steven Sykes
Frans Malherbe	3	Wiehahn Herbst
Tiaan Liebenberg	2	Craig Burden
Deon Carstens	1	Dale Chadwick
Siyabonga Ntubeni	16	Monde Hadebe
Brok Harris	17	Julian Redelinghuys
JC Kritzinger	18	Peet Marais
Wilhelm van der Sluys	19	Francois Kleinhans
Louis Schreuder	20	Conrad Hoffmann
Gary van Aswegen	21	Marius Joubert
Damian de Allende	22	Rosco Speckman

[TRF_Ezequiel]

No Ludik?

[TRF_Draggs]

No Ludik?

Probably being rested along with a few others.

[TRF_Ezequiel]

5 youngsters in the starting XV.... Me like!!!

[TRF_Draggs]

I hope we rotate between Botes and Kleinhans, I feel that Botes could be invaluable in the development of him and Cloete (who has apparently broken his leg, very unfortunate).
Deysel needs a good run of games, injury and the stunning form of Coetzee has limited his time this season.

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Added both line-ups in a nice table to the OP.

[Little Guy]

It's great to see the confidence that Coetzee has in Sinclair, definately a positive for Canadian rugby in general. Hopefully Jebb now has his fitness and conditioning in a better shape. That's a strong WP lineup, kind of regretting my Sharks by 5 pick on Superbru.

[TRF_Ezequiel]

This is what makes the Currie Cup so nice to watch. We see Prinsloo, Sithole, Reinach, Mtembu and Marais play for the Sharks. The prospects on the bench like Hadebe, Redelinghuys, Peet Marais, Kleinhans and Speckman are also very promising and this is where we see future Springboks announce themselves to the big stage!

[TRF_Draggs]

It's great to see the confidence that Coetzee has in Sinclair, definately a positive for Canadian rugby in general. Hopefully Jebb now has his fitness and conditioning in a better shape. That's a strong WP lineup, kind of regretting my Sharks by 5 pick on Superbru.

With all due respect, WP are missing probably half a dozen loose forwards, so it isn't so much confidence as necessity.
Thanks for your backing!

[Little Guy]

Interesting to note the different strategies being played, Sharks seem to be building towards the long game getting some youngsters in there seeing what they can do establishing a core for down the road. WP look to be fielding as strong a side as possible, probably building the squad for mainly next year and having a strong go at taking the title.

@ Draggs, that's a good point, the Stormers have been through a lot of people at #6-8, but there are some talented names in that front five and backline, Sharks can win this but probably wishing I had taken WP by 3.

[TRF_Draggs]

Very green WP midfield, but we have Bosman so that will even things out.
With both Marais lads, PSdT, and Bresler, we have quite the young second row stockpile.
That being said, we've lost possibly half a dozen over 2-3 seasons.

[Little Guy]

How are you rating the Sharks title chances Draggs and Zeq?

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Yeah, but the locks we lost were shit anyway.

Skeate, Sykes (unfortunately he's back), Hargreaves, Wilhelm Steenkamp, Albert van den Berg


We lost a few good ones. Gerhard Mostert and Johann Muller were big losses when they left.

[TRF_Draggs]

How are you rating the Sharks title chances Draggs and Zeq?

Very tough to call mate. Huge Reece-Edwards and Grant Bashford will be running the show while Plumtree steps back for the tournament, so I will be interested to see the changes they bring.
Without a doubt I want the lads to be bring the cup home again, but I also want to develop some new talent. Last season, to me, felt like we were simply 'playing matches'. What I mean to say is, we were picking 22 players and going out to play. It was a toss up between oldies and young players, with no real plan behind the selection.

If we can develop further depth in the forwards (specifically front row, and find another solid second row) and forge a good midfield partnership between Whitehead and Jordaan, I will be pleased. Frans will be first choice inside centre, but I really do like Tim, and we need a better rotation policy next S15. When fit, I'll put our first choice front row against anybody in the world, but beyond the Boks we look weak. Really looking for a big season from Jan Andre Marais, we need another quality second row to partner Anton. Du Toit will come into play during the second half of the season.

Back to the question! Not bad, really. Of course bets will be on Province, but I have confidence in our boys to make these matches count. What is crucial is not slipping up against the Lions or Griquas, as we so love to do.

With regards to Sinclair, I will be interested to see how he is against CC teams. He held his own in the S15 and I think he can certainly cut it here. He will probably be shifted between blindside and 8 depending on Vermeulen's fitness. Poor old Deon Fourie probably doesn't know what position he!

I liked Mostert, some didn't, however. We have similar feeling about Yikes, while Hargreaves just lacked something. Did we ever play Steenkamp? He was listed in our 2010 S14 team but I don't have any records of him playing. I wanted us to go after Ruan Botha, but considering our lock stocks, we would have too many sitting around.

[TRF_Ezequiel]

All depends on who is picked for the Boks. A guy like Aplon can make a huge difference and turn his team into a contender when not selected for the Boks. Same goes for guys like de Jongh, Kolisi, Vermeulen and for the Sharks Bresler, Ludik, Whitehead, Jordaan.

Also there's not much to say now with the players having to get used to each other. I guess the Cheetahs and Lions will have the least issues on that. The Lions only miss Jantjies while the Cheetahs have to do it without le Roux and Downey who represent Griquas at provincial level.

[Gena_ZA]

WP gona klap the Guppies, stop dreaming lads

o_O

[TRF_Ezequiel]

It will be a very interesting match for sure! Going to add the vBookies for the Currie Cup later today.

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Added the vBookie for the biggest clash of the weekend

[Feicarsinn]

I'll root for any and every team to play against Steven Skyes this season. What a bloody useless mug.

[TRF_Draggs]

I'll root for any and every team to play against Steven Skyes this season. What a bloody useless mug.

Agreed about the latter.
I still laugh when I recall some tipping him to play for Ireland.

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Sykes is a player that offers nothing to the team. No line-out specialist, no tackling, no running with the ball. He is as useless as an inside center in Pretoria

[dudeabides]

Added the vBookie for the biggest clash of the weekend

Thanks I put my perpetual 250 bet on WP this time, good luck to Marcel.

[TRF_Ezequiel]

My precious Natal Sharks have a very good mix of experience and talent in the team. With Burden, Botes, Deysel, Bosman, Joubert, Ndungane, Ludik and Viljoen there's plenty of experience to help the young guys and prevent them from losing their cool.

I am very, very interested in the development of Julian Redelinghuys. We desperately need some depth in the prop-department. Depending on the way he performs, he can compete with Dale Chadwick for the position of loosehead prop, who has been below average to be honest. Wiehahn Herbst is the obvious choice on the other side, with Burden in the middle. Kyle Cooper seems to have dropped to 4th choice hooker behind Bismarck, Burden and almost 2-years younger Monde Hadebe.

In the second row the omission of Anton Bresler from the Bok squad means we have him available. I fear Steven Sykes will be his partner-in-crime which is really sad actually. Jandre and Peet Marais (yes, they're brothers) and Pieter-Steph du Toit are all massively talented and need some gametime to develop. Here's to hoping Sykes moves to Leinster again

The backrow has always been our strongest area. We are missing our entire backrow from the Super Rugby play-offs. Coetzee, Daniel and Alberts are with the Springboks and Kankowski moved to Japan. In their absence Jean Deysel will captain the team but the true leader is Jacques Botes. He is the most underrated player we've had in the last 10 years and ever since his arrival in 2005 he never complained when he had to sit on the bench or was left out of the 22. He and Deysel can look after Francois Kleinhans and Lubabalo Mtembu. Both are 21 and both will have their first real chance in the Currie Cup.

Charl McLeod was not called up for the Springboks, but he was given a rest after playing the majority of the Super Rugby matches, which leaves Conrad Hoffmann and Cobur Reinach. The latter is the youngest and seems to get the knot over Hoffmann, who has been injury-prone since his arrival from WP last year. Fly-half is a real worry though. Michalak left, Lambie is with the Boks and over the last few years we have had so many fly-halves, I even lost count. Goode, Hernandez, Michalak, James, Meyer, Barritt, Lambie, Dumond, Pienaar, Kockott, Pretorius, Ross Cronje, Guy Cronje, Mathie, Jacobs, Borgen, Swanepoel, Bosman and now we have Riaan Viljoen. That's almost 20 different fly-halves in 5 years. We need consistency for this position. Will we ever get there?

The centers are pretty much settled. We have Whitehead, Jordaan and Bosman to take care of that, with Francois Steyn playing for the Boks. No real worries here. For years we struggled in this department but now we have one of the strongest midfields in the competition. On the wing, Rosko Specman gets his chance with Ndungane and Sithole in the starting line-up, no real surprises there.

Full-back is pretty decent as well. Ludik is being rested for a couple of weeks but Gouws Prinsloo takes over from him and he is a very promising youngster. I cannot wait for the season to start!!!!

[SomeOke]

Very hard game to call, but I have to say I think WP will take this one.
I wouldn't be surprised to be proven wrong, but the Stormers outfit on display is quite a settled one, with the exception of our centres.

Our loose trio may look think but I think Jebb Sinclair was starting to look very good towards the end of the season, and Deon Fourie has proven an able open-side.
I think our half-back pairing, front row and outside backs are all slightly better, not trying to be cocky but that's how I feel, Riaan Viljoen is a very solid player but it is quite an adjustment to suddenly be playing fly-half after covering full-back all season.

[TRF_Ezequiel]

In my opinion, the teams are pretty even.

Back three: Stormers win this by a mile. Pietersen, Aplon and van den Heever are much more experienced and skilled than Prinsloo, Sithole, Ndungane.

Center combination is definitely the Sharks winning. Jordaan-Bosman against JP du Plessis-Brache

Halfback combo is pretty even. Francis-Duvenhage against Viljoen-Reinach is close but I pick WP here

Backrow is an obvious win for Natal. Deysel, Botes, Mtembu against Sinclair, Holmes, Fourie

Second row is pretty even. Steenkamp-Armand is pretty equal to Marais-Sykes

Front row is anyone's guess. Carstens and Malherbe have not been up to they best, Herbst and Chadwick are still young. Hooker match-up is tough to call. Liebenberg being the more phyiscal one, Burden having more pace. Tie.

The bench is too close to call as well.


All in all, WP have the better overall team. Sharks might sneak in a win, but it will be a close one.

[TRF_Ezequiel]

I had a dream last night that WP would lead into half-time but we win in the end 22-19 thanks to a Sithole try and a drop-goal

[TRF_Draggs]

I'm not sure who is more useless, Sykes or Burden.

[Gena_ZA]

WP way better as a forward unit in the 1st half in very wet weather

Brache best centre on the filed
Viljoen is error prone, as always
Deon Fourie does a very good job as fetcher
Young no 9 Cobus Reinach from Sharks has huge potential, nice pedigree as well, his Dad was the SA champ in the 400m

[TRF_Draggs]

WP way better as a forward unit in the 1st half in very wet weather

Agreed. We look shapeless.
Only spark is Cobus Reinach. Looks lively, so much better than the ponderous kicker McLeod.

[Gena_ZA]

WOW, great rugby from the Sharks at the start ofthe 2nd half
Brilliant try from Paul Jordaan, showed his pace and class - seems he injured that hamstring again...
Another try from Craig Burden.
WP kicking everything and the Sharks capitalizing here

WP fail with this brand of rugby