Sharks chief executive John Smit rates his fellow South African Super rugby franchises highly but there is something about the French teams that gets his pulse racing. By the time Super rugby comes to its meandering conclusion in August, the Sharks will have had their unedifying share of uncompromising South African derbies.So, as part of their pre-season preparation, they will instead face Toulon and Toulouse on successive weekends in France.These sides will differ in strength due to Six Nations commitments and having to pace themselves with the domestic and European competitions reaching the business ends.Not that Smit is worried about the strength of the French teams.Their deep financial pockets allow them to buy as many foreign players as their hearts desire."Toulouse and Toulon will be significantly weakened by absentees for the Six Nations but the nice thing is that even a second-string Toulon side will be a serious challenge for us."Asked about their strengths, Smit foresaw challenges up front."I suppose we will be under threat in set-pieces," he said."At the end of the day, they are two hardened clubs who are in the middle to end of what have been long seasons."I hope we can get parity in the set-pieces but I feel that the guys will want to take what they have been practising for the last three months and actually see it work."The Sharks' touring squad will be named tomorrow and some players may be missing.Of the Japanese contingent, Willie le Roux and Marcell Coetzee joined the Sharks in training yesterday.There are questions, however, about the fitness of Thomas du Toit, Khaya Majola, Tera Mtembu, Jean Deysel and Francois Kleinhans.It should be no surprise if the they fail to make the cut, even though there is a concern in that four of them are loose forwards.In what is shaping up as a long and relentless Super rugby season, all the Super rugby franchises will need all their players fit and firing.According to Smit, the French trip allows the Sharks to get a taste of a different rugby culture before settling for the familiar southern hemisphere cuisine.However there is a distinct South African flavour about Toulon with its bunch of seasoned South African internationals."Toulon were really spiced up last year but they didn't play too many of their South Africans."Most of them were on the bench and they came on in the second half."However, I can imagine how keen [former Springbok flank] Juan Smith might be to smash a few Durbanites," Smit said."Toulon have been champions for the past two years."One has only to inspect their squad to see they're never too short of firepower."..