Ken Borland

Ex-Pumas loose forward Renaldo Bothma returns to the Cell C Sharks starting line-up in place of the injured Willem Alberts for their Vodacom SuperRugby match against the Toyota Cheetahs in Bloemfontein on Saturday after director of rugby Gary Gold announced a team with four changes on Thursday.

The Sharks will be eager to put a torrid 2015 behind them as they begin pre-season training for 2016, director of rugby Gary Gold saying they will be looking to start a new era of success for the KwaZulu-Natal side.

“Everyone’s had a good break so now we need to hit the ground running. I hope this young side will be energetic and enthusiastic, because I see this as a new era and I’m certainly excited, keen to put the last year behind us as quickly as possible,” Gold told The Citizen before the Sharks started their pre-season training on Tuesday.

Despite his optimism, Gold conceded that there would be no quick-fix solution to the problems that bedevilled the Sharks in 2015, which saw them finish 11^th in Super Rugby and fifth in the Currie Cup.

“It’s very important to make it clear that we won’t be making any excuses, our performance simply wasn’t good enough, especially for a franchise as big as the Sharks. But an era was coming to an end, we lost a lot of stalwarts and it’s not ideal having four coaches in 18 months at the same time. Change hit us hard and we also had insurmountable injuries, but the bottom line is that the performance was poor,” Gold said.

While Gold is firmly in the camp that favours South African rugby moving forward towards a more free-flowing style, he says defence will be the focus in terms of their Super Rugby preparations.

“Of course I want us to be more of a threat with ball in hand, but defence is the foundation of every good team. I know it’s not romantic, but you learn a lot about a team by how hard they work for each other in defence. We were substantially better in the Currie Cup, our points difference of only -8 shows that, but we need to put pressure on the opposition through our defence.

“A lot of tries these days still come from turnovers, mistakes and poor kicks, and we need to try and force those through our defence. But we also need to be more clever and, strategically, to think more out of the box. Robert du Preez [the new assistant coach] also ticks a lot of boxes for us, he’s a hard taskmaster and there are no half-measures with him,” Gold said.

Sharks director of rugby Gary Gold on Monday defended the decision to sign Springbok hooker Chiliboy Ralepelle despite the fact that he is serving a doping ban, saying other teams were also chasing his signature and that his suitability had been thoroughly investigated.

Ralepelle, who won two Super Rugby titles with the Bulls, was handed a two-year suspension by WorldRugby after an out-of-competition doping test in March 2014 returned a positive test for a metabolite of an anabolic steroid, drostanolone, he had used while recovering from an operation on an anterior cruciate ligament following a knee injury he sustained while playing for Toulouse against Biarritz in France.

“We have done due diligence and Chiliboy is very remorseful. He deserved his penalty, there is no excuse for what he did and he knows that, but he will have done his time in April next year, four games into Super Rugby.

“We weren’t the only people in the market for him and I hope he will do his talking on the field. He’s an outstanding leader, he’s matured as a player at 29 and he deserves a second chance. Personally I think he got a raw deal before going to France, it was very sad that he was let go. He’s an outstanding player and, while I was forwards coach for the Springboks, he put John Smit and Bismarck du Plessis under real pressure. His work-rate is sensational, he carries and drives well and his set-piece work is precise,” Gold told The Citizen on Monday.

Several critics have expressed their anger at the decision to sign the hooker with 22 Test caps between 2006 and 2013, but the double-standard is clear when one considers how Johan Ackermann, who was banned for two years in 1997 for taking nandrolone to help heal a knee injury, has been welcomed back into the fold and is doing great work as the Lions coach.

The new year will also see the Sharks sporting a new assistant coach in former Springbok scrumhalf Robert du Preez, who has just steered the North-West Leopards to the Currie Cup First Division title, and a new defence coach in Omar Mouneimne, who has worked with Italy, Edinburgh, the EP Kings and Lyon.

Highly promising Western Province lock Ruan Botha has been mentioned as another possible signing for the Sharks, but he is still under contract in Cape Town, although Springbok Pieter-Steph du Toit’s move from Durban to the Stormers could see him eager to relocate.

There are four changes to the Cell C Sharks’ starting line-up for their Vodacom SuperRugby match against the Emirates Lions in Durban on Saturday, but director of rugby Gary Gold said he is trying to maintain as much consistency as possible despite their poor start to the season.

The Sharks went down to the Cheetahs in a shock result at King’s Park last weekend, and three of the four changes are injury-enforced.

The odd one out is captain Bismarck du Plessis’ return at hooker, which is a no-brainer after he withdrew shortly before the Cheetahs game with a shoulder problem.

Lubabalo “Giant” Mtyanda will make his SuperRugby debut as he comes in at lock for Mouritz Botha, the English international having fractured a cheekbone last weekend.

He won’t have “Beast” Mtawarira in front of him, however, as the loosehead prop suffered a torn calf against the Cheetahs and has been replaced by Dale Chadwick.

Wing S’bura Sithole twisted his ankle to rule him out of action, with veteran Odwa Ndungane coming in on the right wing.

“It was a very disappointing performance against the Cheetahs but we’re not going to hit the panic button. Making four enforced changes already means nearly 30% of your team has changed and I want to try and keep some consistency in selection,” Gold told The Citizen. “We’re backing the players to get it right this weekend and they’ve trained well.”

Gold also said the time was not quite right to rush loose forward Jean Deysel back into the starting line-up, despite his strong showing off the bench in the opening game.

“He’s very close, but getting back from Japan not that long ago, we just want to give him a slow entry back into SuperRugby and not throw him into the deep end. Another 30-35 minutes off the bench this weekend will be good for him,” Gold said.

The other places on the bench opened up by the injuries go to loosehead prop Thomas du Toit and powerful young centre Andre Esterhuizen.

Mtyanda, who moved to Durban from the Pumas last year, has leapfrogged the experienced Marco Wentzel, who is seen more as a number five lock and will continue to provide cover on the bench. Pieter-Steph du Toit is able to play in either second-row position.

Gold said Ryan Kankowski is back from Japan and in training with the Sharks, while Frans Steyn and JP Pietersen are going to be playing in a semi-final this weekend, with Sharks fans obviously hoping they lose so they can return as soon as possible to SuperRugby action.

Team: 15-SP Marais, 14-Odwa Ndungane, 13-Waylon Murray, 12-Heimar Williams, 11-Lwazi Mvovo, 10-Pat Lambie, 9-Cobus Reinach, 8-Tera Mtembu, 7-Renaldo Bothma, 6-Marcell Coetzee, 5-Pieter-Steph du Toit, 4-Lubabalo Mtyanda, 3-Jannie du Plessis, 2-Bismarck du Plessis (capt), 1-Dale Chadwick. Replacements – 16-Kyle Cooper, 17-Thomas du Toit, 18-Matt Stevens, 19-Marco Wentzel, 20-Jean Deysel, 21-Conrad Hoffmann, 22-Fred Zeilinga, 23-Andre Esterhuizen.