Ken Borland

Despite losing three of their desired 23-man squad to Covid, the Sharks are travelling to Kimberley confident that they have the depth to hit peak form against Griquas on Friday night and keep their hopes alive as the Super Rugby Unlocked competition goes into its last two rounds.

Coach Sean Everitt confirmed that one member of the starting XV he wanted to select (probably flank Henco Venter because he was captain last week and is now out of the squad altogether) had tested positive for Covid-19 and two other players who were going to sit on the bench are also isolating because they have had contact with the affected player.

Nevertheless, there is only one debutant in the starting team, former Lions star Anthony Volmink coming in for Manie Libbok at fullback in what is a rotational switch, with the former Blue Bulls player shifting to the bench. The Sharks have also made rotational switches at hooker, lock and wing, while first-choice openside flank James Venter makes a return from injury.

The Sharks, to be led by Currie Cup co-skipper Jeremy Ward on Friday night, are six points behind the log-leading Bulls, and have a game in hand. So if the KwaZulu-Natalians can come away with a bonus point win from Kimberley, then they will be just one point behind heading into the final round.

“The Covid withdrawals haven’t really been a disruption because we were able to move on quite quickly, we had an idea of who we wanted to play and the team has trained well together. You never know initially how many players are going to affected, but fortunately our analysis of training showed there had not been a lot of contact with the guy who tested positive.

“We’ve been taking it one game at a time, but never taking our eyes off the end of the competition, but we haven’t really delivered a top performance yet. We need to get down to work now and hopefully we can come away with a bonus point win which will leave us just one point adrift. The advantage is that we have been rotating guys so everyone has had game time,” Everitt said on Thursday.

While the minnows in Super Rugby often seem to want a disorderly, scrappy game when they come up against the big franchises, Everitt believes Griquas will bring a well-controlled, structured game plan on Friday night.

“Griquas are certainly well-structured, they have clear exit strategies, neat and tidy. Their flyhalf George Whitehead is a seasoned campaigner, he controls the game really well and he was one of the standout players in last year’s Currie Cup. We know coach Scott Mathie from his time with Durban High School, they were free-flowing and played from everywhere, but a different team and situation can change a coach’s philosophy.

“The Stormers showed though against Griquas last weekend that bringing a ball-in-hand approach can create opportunities. But it’s going to be about accuracy and execution for us, we weren’t that good in that respect last weekend, there were a lot of individual errors. And we need to tighten our discipline as well so we don’t give them opportunities. We need to be at the top of our game,” Everitt said.

Teams

Griquas – Masixole Banda, Ederies Arendse, Harlon Klaasen, Johnathan Francke, Eduan Keyter, George Whitehead (captain), Zak Burger, Johan Momsen, Stefan Willemse, Gideon van der Merwe, Cameron Lindsay, Adre’ Smith, Ewald van der Westhuizen, HJ Luus, -Mox Mxoli. Replacements (from): Monde Hadebe, Andrew Beerwinkel, Madot Mabokela, Carl Els, CJ Velleman, Theo Maree, Tinus de Beer, Daniel Kasende, Bandisa Ndlovu, Ewan Coetzee, Ashlon Davids.

Sharks – Anthony Volmink, Yaw Penxe, Jeremy Ward (C), Marius Louw, Madosh Tambwe, Curwin Bosch, Sanele Nohamba, Phendulani Buthelezi, Thembelani Bholi, James Venter, Hyron Andrews, Ruben van Heerden, John-Hubert Meyer, Kerron van Vuuren, Ox Nche. Replacements: Daniel Jooste, Mzamo Majola, Khwezi Mona, JJ van der Mescht, Dylan Richardson, Cameron Wright, Manie Libbok, Sbu Nkosi.

Kickoff – 19:00