The Carling Currie Cup shifts into round two this weekend with the Hollywoodbets Sharks XV playing back-to-back away games, this time to the central region to take on the Toyota Cheetahs in Bloemfontein on Friday.
The two teams occupy the top two spots on the log following their narrow, bonus point victories in round one, the Hollywoodbets Sharks seeing off the Airlink Pumas 26-24 and the Toyota Cheetahs also securing a two-point margin after defeating the Fidelity ADT Lions 29-27 on Sunday.
“We were very happy to get the win against the Airlink Pumas, that performance was really satisfying and to start the competition with a result like that goes a long way in terms of building confidence in the group,” explains Head coach Mike Vowles. “It’s also gone a long way in terms of cohesion and belief.”
Vowles has stuck with the motto: ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’ naming a team that features just one enforced change, Danilo Botha replacing Jannes Potgieter who suffered a knee injury in the early stages of last week’s match
“We haven’t made many changes, we feel that the more the team plays together, the better we’re going to get. We’ve brought in Danilo who joined us from the DHL Stormers, he played his age group rugby down there and we see him as a player with massive potential. He’s incredibly physical and given some time in our system, I think he’s going to be really good for us and someone to watch.”
For Vowles and his team, regular improvements is the theme, just getting better and better as the tournament progresses.
“We’re looking at the Toyota Cheetahs as another opportunity to build a bit of momentum, find some cohesion as a group and measure ourselves against a really good team.
“They’re a settled team who have played a lot of rugby together, they have some experienced players in their group and we anticipate a physical battle from them.
“But having seen what our group can do, I have no doubt we’ll be able to match them physically. But our focus is on ourselves and on us improving, finding cohesion and building on one performance after another, understanding that this competition isn’t won in round one or two, you have to consistently perform to stay at the top.
“There’s a really positive and good culture amongst the group, from Tom Dyer and his leadership group, they’re really guided this team well.”
Friday evening’s match against the Toyota Cheetahs at Toyota Stadium kicks off at 5pm.
Hollywoodbets Sharks
- Cameron Dawson
- Kerron van Vuuren
- Simphiwe Ngobese
- Johan Momsen
- Deon Slabbert
- Willem van den Hever
- Danilo Botha
- Thomas Dyer (Captain)
- Ross Braude
- Tim Swiel
- Lyle Matthews
- Janco Purchase
- Marnus Potgieter
- Christie Grobbelaar
- Chijindu Okonta
Replacements
- Bryce Calvert
- Jaco du Toit
- Lee-Marvin Mazibuko
- Sipho Nonyalela
- Hanu Pieterse
- Ceano Everson
- Chris Horak
- Matthew Fortuin
