Du Preez back to hunt down Lions
Daniel du Preez comes in on the flank in the place of the injured Philip van der Walt – who suffered a neck injury in the encounter with the Crusaders a fortnight ago.
Springbok Keegan Daniel takes du Preez's place on the bench in the only other change to the matchday 23.
The teams are both coming off narrow defeats to the Crusaders – the Sharks losing 14-19 in Round Five and the Lions going down 37-43 to the same team last week.
The Lions trail the Sharks by two points in the race for first place on the Africa Two Conference.
Of the six South African teams the Lions have scored the most points (and tries), to underline their attacking mindset.
However, their points difference is only plus-nine, compared to the Sharks' +39.
Veteran Springbok Odwa Ndungane needs two more tries to equal the Sharks' all-time Super Rugby try scoring record, held by Stefan Terblanche.
Fellow Bok flyer JP Pietersen holds the record for the most tries scored by a Sharks player in a single season, with a total of 12 tries scored in the 2007 season.
The Sharks' record for most tries scored in a Super Rugby match is 10, which was set against the Rebels in 2013.
Paul Jordaan has missed just three of his tackle attempts this season, giving him the second best tackle success (94.4 percent) of any player to have made more than 50 attempts.
Sharks: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Paul Jordaan, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Joe Pietersen, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Daniel du Preez, 7 Jean-Luc du Preez, 6 Marcell Coetzee, 5 Stephan Lewies, 4 Etienne Oosthuizen, 3 Coenie Oosthuizen, 2 Franco Marais, 1 Tendai Mtawarira (captain).
Replacements: 16 Kyle Cooper, 17 Juan Schoeman, 18 Lourens Adriaanse, 19 Hyron Andrews, 20 Keegan Daniel, 21 Michael Claassens, 22 Garth April, 23 Odwa Ndungane.
Date: Saturday, April 9
Venue: Kings Park, Durban
Kick-off: 17.05 (15.05 GMT)
Referee: Angus Gardner (Australia)
Assistant referees: Nicholas Berry (Australia), Rodney Bonaparte (South Africa)
TMO: Marius Jonker (South Africa)
