The Hollywoodbets Sharks XV travel to Cape Town on Saturday, 1st August to take on the DHL Stormers XXIII in a Carling Currie Cup third round clash at DHL Stadium with much on the line for both sides.
The coastal rivalry extends back into the annals of history, but all achievements are in the past as the two teams look to build continuity, growth and success in this year’s tournament.
Both teams come into this game off the back of two away matches, but the DHL Stormers XXIII are at home for the first time in the tournament, while the Hollywoodbets Sharks XV have their third match on the road and will look to their opening round victory over the Airlink Pumas away from home, and the strong showing last week as motivation for this clash.
Head coach Mike Vowles has brought in some young, exciting and explosive talent in the form of Luan Giliomee, Liam van Wyk, Rambo Kubheka and Khuthi Rashivanga as he looks to this opportunity to perform a threefold aim: to grow the talent pool at the union, to give the young players an opportunity to shine and gauge their readiness at a senior level, and for them to bring their energy into a competition the Hollywoodbets Sharks are proud to be a part of, and one they dearly want to succeed in.
“There have been a couple of changes with the SA Under 20 guys coming back from their successful World Championships where they defeated XX in the final to win the title for a second year in a row,” Vowles explains.
“We thought it important to give them a crack with The Sharks vision of creating a pipeline from our youth structures, and in line with this, wanted to see where they’re at and how they can perform in a senior competition.
“Other changes are more on the bench where we felt that we haven’t ended the games particularly well, so we wanted to finish strong in the last 20, and we feel that the selections we’ve made to the bench will certainly help us achieve that.
“So they come into our matchday 23 and it’s really exciting to see what they can do.”
After suffering a comprehensive 41-3 defeat to the Sanlam Boland Kavaliers last week, Vowles warns of the backlash he expects from the DHL Stormers XXIII.
“We understand that they’re coming off a loss and they’ll be hurting, so we expect them to deliver a big response when they get the opportunity to play at home.
“But we’ve prepared well and for us it’s about building on the momentum of the previous two games and with an eye on really finishing well.”
DID YOU KNOW?
The Hollywoodbets Sharks and DHL Stormers (as Western Province) have met in eight Carling Currie Cup finals in the post 1990 era (when Natal defeated Northern Transvaal to secure their first title), with the spoils evenly shared on four trophies apiece.
