Saturday’s third round Carling Currie Cup coastal derby pits a traditional rivalry of local rugby between Durban and Cape Town, as the Hollywoodbets Sharks XV take on the DHL Stormers XXIII at DHL Stadium.
Both sides come off a win-and-loss record in the opening fortnight’s action and each will be determined to rectify that record this weekend.
The Sharks Next Gen, coached by Neil Powell, will also be in action as title-holders in the SA Rugby Under 20 Cup, taking on the Western Province Bolts in the opening round in the 12 noon curtain-raiser.
Hollywoodbets Sharks XV head coach Mike Vowles has bolstered his side with returning victorious SA Under 20 Baby Bok stars in his quest to inject extra excitement to his Carling Currie Cup side, off the back of a result that could have gone either way last Friday.
“We’re a team that speaks about being process-driven and we want to build on our performances from week-to-week, so our expectation going into this match is that we have to be better than we were in the last two games,” he explained as his side prepare for their third away match in a row.
“There are certain things we did exceptionally well in the previous games that we want to build on, and to fix the stuff we didn’t quite execute as well as we should have, so the idea would be to improve and most importantly, put in a good performance for 80 minutes because I think in both games, we’ve fallen away in that back quarter, so we want to make sure we put in an 80-minute performance on Saturday.”
In that regard, Vowles has made some adjustments to the group, including four Under 20s that have come back into the system.
“They come with massive potential, they’re exciting rugby players and we feel that including them will give us some punch in the final quarter of the game and that they have a really positive influence on our performance,” he explained.
Vowles has selected Luan Gilliomee at fullback with Khuthi Rasivhaga, Liam van Wyk and Rambo Kubheka playing off the bench.
“We know the DHL Stormers XXIII have come off a big loss [going down 41-3 to the Sanlam Boland Kavaliers] and there will be a response from them, they’ll come out fighting, so we anticipate a really high tempo, very physical match.
“But we’ve had a good week of prep and we’ve made some changes to the team which speaks to how we want to play and how we want to finish the game.”
Saturday’s match kicks off at 3pm
Hollywoodbets Sharks XV
- Cameron Dawson
- Bryce Calvert
- Simphiwe Ngobese
- Johan Momsen
- Deon Slabbert
- Luaan Olivier
- Danio Botha
- Thomas Dyer (Captain)
- Ross Braude
- Tim Swiel
- Lyle Matthews
- Janco Purchase
- Marnus Potgieter
- Christie Grobbelaar
- Luan Gilliomee
Replacements
- Liam van Wyk
- Phiwayinkosi “Rambo” Kubheka
- Lee-Marvin Mazibuko
- Hanu Pieterse
- Jean-Henri Smit
- Juan Loots
- Albie Bester
- Khuthi Rasivhaga
The Sharks Next Gen (U/20)
- Jeffrey Singo
- Clinton Agu
- Aiden Botha
- Jake Jansen
- Zian Erasmus
- Imivuyo Kemka
- Reece Curtin
- Henlo Jordaan
- Zirk Meyer
- Pieter Bergh
- Luan Williams
- Iwan Jordaan
- William Ridl
- Lizwe Mtetwa
- Stefan Moolman
Replacements
- Ulrich du Preez
- Sibabalwe Mtshini
- Bernard du Toit
- Claude Steyn
- Thando Luthuli
- Riekus van der Merwe
- Danilo Jordaan
- Keenan Stoffels
- Sinekhaya Radebe
- Cruzz Davey
- Evan Mucka