Durban — Plenty has been said about the 10 key players the Sharks will not have when they host Cardiff on Sunday evening, and correctly so, but on the other side of the ledger is the return from suspension of former Springbok Rohan Janse van Rensburg.
The stocky centre was banned for four matches because of reckless tackling against Leinster, but some clever reasoning by Rassie Erasmus has seen his suspension curtailed — the SA director of rugby told the URC that he was going to pick Van Rensburg for the SA A team’s two recent games, so two matches have been lopped off the suspension.
The return of the powerhouse gives the Sharks an exceptional midfield — at 13 is another former Bok in Francois Venter.
Naturally, Sharks director of rugby Neil Powell is thrilled to be getting a Bok back in a week that he is without the 10 who are on duty at Twickenham.
“Rohan is such a quality player, and he will be especially useful this weekend when a lot of rain is expected and the conditions could be very difficult,” Powell said. “Rohan is one of those centres who can be very direct, and having him partnering with a very experienced player in Francois is a big boost.”
Heavy rain is predicted for the entire weekend, and come 6pm kick-off on Sunday, Hollywoodbets Kings Park is likely to be saturated. Powell warns that this could suit Cardiff.
“Cardiff are a really good team. They have changed the way they play from last year, and the conditions we expect will suit their game,” Powell pointed out. “So we need to make sure we manage the game well and that we are very disciplined.
“If you look at the way they have scored their tries against some very good teams... the majority came from line-out mauls – in fact, half of their tries came from mauls. Our discipline must be good so that they cannot use their line-out as a weapon.”
The Sharks’ last match was their defeat to the Bulls just before the Boks left on tour, and to avoid rustiness Powell organised a friendly against the Cheetahs last week.
“Playing the Cheetahs was a very good exercise,” he said. “There was a lot we learned from the Bulls game and wanted to put into action.
“The big thing from that loss to the Bulls was that our preparation had been very good in the week, but there was no carry-over from that prep into the game.
“This week we have also had good preparation, and there must be a carry-over from the training, and there must be the same effort and accuracy of the training field in the actual game.”
Sharks: 15 Anthony Volmink 14 Marnus Potgieter 13 Francois Venter 12 Rohan Janse van Rensburg 11 Werner Kok 10 Boeta Chamberlain 9 Cameron Wright 8 Sikhumbuzo Notshe 7 Vincent Tshituka 6 James Venter (capt) 5 Gerbrandt Grobler 4 Justin Basson 3 Carlu Sadie 2 Kerron van Vuuren 1 Dian Bleuler.
Substitutes: 16 Dan Jooste, 17 Lionel Cronje, 18 Bradley Davids, 19 Phepsi Buthelezi, 20 Hyron Andrews, 21 Khutha Mchunu, 22 Khwezi Mona, 23 Dan Jooste.
IOL Sport