Durban – Sharks coach John Plumtree has named an unchanged starting line-up for their clash against the Southern Kings at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, in Port Elizabeth, on Saturday.
It is the third consecutive week the Durban team will field the same group of players in Vodacom Super Rugby after using the exact squad in victories over the Cheetahs and Stormers during the opening two rounds.
“The 22 you see at the moment is pretty much what we’ve got, apart from Riaan Viljoen and Marius Joubert,” Plumtree said.
“The rest are all injured at the moment, so we’re just hoping we can stay relatively injury free until those boys return.”
His reference was to the lengthy injury list, which included Springbok forward trio Keegan Daniel, Bismarck du Plessis and Willem Alberts as well as veteran Butch James, Tim Whitehead and Dale Chadwick.
“We’re only at round three, there are two more games after the Kings before we have a bye and we’ll then have an opportunity to freshen everyone up thereafter, which will be good.”
Sharks team: Louis Ludik, JP Pietersen, Paul Jordaan, Francois Steyn (captain), Lwazi Mvovo, Patrick Lambie, Cobus Reinach, Ryan Kankowski, Jean Deysel, Marcell Coetzee, Franco van der Merwe, Anton Bresler, Jannie du Plessis, Craig Burden, Tendai Mtawarira. Replacements: Kyle Cooper, Wiehahn Herbst, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Jacques Botes, Charl McLeod, Meyer Bosman, Odwa Ndungane. – Sapa