Sharks XV Team List – Featured Durban Blog

Team list for the Cell C Sharks XV warm-up match against Border in Kokstad.

The match kicks off at 15h30 at the Kokstad Rugby Club.

The Cell C Sharks’ team named to play the Cheetahs in a round five Vodacom Super Rugby clash in Bloemfontein has been bolstered by the return of our Springboks who were rested last weekend.

Beast Mtawarira returns to our starting line-up along with fellow Springbok Coenie Oosthuizen in a rejigged front row.

Lwazi Mvovo is back on the wing in the final of three Springboks who missed the Kings match due to the enforced Rest Protocol.

Curwin Bosch who came on to replace our injured captain, Pat Lambie, at flyhalf two weeks ago was named at fullback last weekend in the absence, due to injury, of Clement Poitrenaud.  The French international has been passed fit and will feature in the number 15 jersey with Bosch back at flyhalf for this match.

Scrumhalf Cobus Reinach was born, raised and schooled in the Free State before picking up his junior rugby with the Cell C Sharks and he warns of a Cheetahs side that has added a few strings to their attacking bow under coach Franco Smith. Not to mention the pain of losing 41-14 on the weekend which will be huge motivation for them to get things right against us.

“They have always played attacking rugby, but now they attack with different lines, so they are quite unpredictable,” he explains. “What we can expect is a lot of attacking rugby which will keep us on our feet; it’s quite a good challenge.

“The Cheetahs team is a strong outfit with some very exciting players who can bring anything to the party.”

With the two teams sitting in a similar position after last week – where the Cheetahs lost to the Jaguares and the Cell C Sharks didn’t perform as well as they wanted to – he expects a huge match on Saturday, both teams with a point to prove.

“Both teams need to put in a big performance, we’re expecting a huge performance from them, as well as one from us. We need to lift our standards.”