Sharks have the licence to thrill

04 July 2014 - 02:12 By Khanyiso Tshwaku
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The fact that the Sharks have cemented their play-off spot has made life easier for their director of rugby Jake White, allowing him to field what is a second-string front row for their Super 15 clash against the Cheetahs tomorrow.

Lourens Adriaanse, Kyle Cooper and Dale Chadwick will come in while the Du Plessis brothers, Jannie and Bismark, start on the bench. Tendai Mtawarira is still recovering from the neck injury he picked up in the Tests against Wales.

White hoped the security of a safe passage into the knock-out phase will allow his team to have freedom of the park.

"It is nice to know that we have won the South African conference, and as much as the Cheetahs have an opportunity to play because they have nothing to lose, we are almost in the same boat," White said.

"It is irrelevant if we lose the last two games. We still get to play in the knock-out stages, which I hope for us is a less tight noose around our necks and I hope it will give the team an opportunity to express themselves."

But the mercurial Frans Steyn will be lining up at 12 alongside Tim Swiel, who was manning the lines at the Sharks' training sessions this week. White said Steyn's importance to the Sharks' cause cannot be underestimated.

Heinrich Brussow was a big factor in the Sharks beating the Cheetahs 19-8 in April, when the stocky fetcher turned in a master class of how to slow down a team's ball and make a general nuisance of oneself.

It was a lesson Sharks' incumbent fetcher Marcel Coetzee and White took to heart ahead of their Australasian tour, where there was a marked improvement in their breakdown, even though Coetzee missed the bulk of the tour through injury.

White believes the Cheetahs will put up a better fight against the Sharks than they did on the first-round encounter.

He said: "I have no doubt with the form that Willie le Roux is in, there is no way they will want to kick the ball away. They will want to hold onto the ball and build pressure. They have seven guys who played in last week's Test and they will take that momentum into the game."

Super 15 Fixtures

Today

Chiefs vs Hurricanes (9.35am)

Lions vs Rebels (7.10pm)

Tomorrow

Crusaders vs Blues (9.35am)

Force vs Reds (11.40am)

Stormers vs Bulls (5.05pm)

Cheetahs vs Sharks (7.10pm)

Sunday

Waratahs vs Highlanders (8.05am)

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