Lions now a bogey team, but Sharks know what to expect
DEFENDING champions the Golden Lions will be looking to avenge a first-round defeat by the Sharks when the two sides meet in a top-of-the-table Currie Cup Premier Division clash, in Joburg on Saturday, and history will be on their side since the Sharks have not won a match in any competition in Joburg since 2010.
In what is a repeat of last year’s final, the Lions will want to use their home-ground advantage to overturn a 30-14 defeat at Kings Park in Durban last month. Both sides have 20 log points, with the Joburg side edging their coastal rivals on points difference with four rounds remaining of the sixteam competition.
It is a top-of-the-table clash in all respects, with the winner able to open up a gap on the second-placed team with three rounds still to play weekend’s fixtures.
The top of the log has been congested for some time, and this match provides an opportunity for either the Lions or the Sharks to break away. Last week, the Lions and the Sharks broke free from Free State and Western Province with wins, to make it a two-way lead at the top of the standings.
“Given our record there in Super Rugby and the Currie Cup, we are hardly taking anything for granted, far from it,” said Sharks coach John Plumtree. The Sharks were destroyed in the Currie Cup final last year and were well beaten in the Super Rugby fixture at the same venue earlier this year.
“Going to play the Lions in Joburg has become like going to play Griquas,” Plumtree said.
“They have become bogey teams for us away from home, but I can assure you the guys are in the right mood to get the result. It will not be through lack of trying because we know what the Lions will deliver from the first whistle. They can move the ball or play up the middle with equal comfort, and they seem to have an appetite for playing us at their home ground.”
A big positive for Plumtree’s opposite number, Johan Ackermann, is that his team is becoming stronger as the weeks go by, with formerly injured men returning almost weekly to the side. And, he’s able to virtually pick the same team from one week to the next, a huge bonus at this time of the year.
For tomorrow’s match, the only change at the moment is in the second row where Michael Rhodes or Etienne Oosthuizen will replace the injured Hendrik Roodt. Among the backs, Jaco Taute will continue to play off the bench, unless Alwyn Hollenbach has to withdraw because of a groin strain.
In tomorrow’s other matches, third-placed Western Province will host high-flying Griquas at Newlands, with the men from Kimberley having climbed up to fourth in the standings thanks to three wins on the trot.
And in the weekend’s final match, the bottom-placed Blue Bulls will look to turn their season around when they host the fifth-placed Cheetahs at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria.
Blue Bulls flyhalf Louis Fouche tops the Premier Division point-scoring log after Round 6, with 83 points, made up of 10 conversions, 20 penalties and a drop-goal. Behind Fouche in second place are Sharks centre Meyer Bosman and Griquas flyhalf Francois Brummer, who have both scored 79 points.
Sharks wing Odwa Ndungane, Cheetahs wing Raymond Rhule, Blue Bulls loose forward CJ Stander and Griquas wing Rocco Jansen are the top tryscorers with four apiece.