Griquas beef up pack for Sharks
TEAM ANNOUNCEMENT: Griquas will face the Sharks with a reshuffled team in Friday’s Super Rugby Unlocked Round Six encounter in Kimberley.
There is a new look lock pairing – with Adré Smith starting at No.5, next to last weekend’s replacement lock Cameron Lindsay, who swaps places with Mzwanele Zito.
Johan Momsen returns to the No.8 position in a rotational swap with Carl Els, who joins Zito on the bench.
The Griquas backline also has a different look, as there are several changes in a bid to freshen up the attack against the dangerous team from Durban.
Regular skipper George Whitehead returns at flyhalf and resumes the captaincy duties, with last weekend’s starting flyhalf, Tinus de Beer, set to play off the bench.
Former Southern Kings fullback Masixole Banda gets an opportunity in place of the versatile and regular No.15 James Verity-Amm, Eduan Keyter switches from outside centre to wing, where the experienced Bjorn Basson did duty against the Stormers, while Harlon Klaasen is now entrusted with the No.13 duties in midfield.
That leaves centurion Ederies Arendse (right wing), Johnathan Francke (inside centre) and Zak Burger (scrumhalf) as the only players who will start in the same positions as last week.
After coming unstuck against the Stormers in their previous outing, the men from Kimberley will be determined to register their first success of the campaign.
They continue the search for their maiden win in Super Rugby Unlocked, having conceded exactly 100 points across their last two appearances in the competition, so they would want to also improve on their defensive effort.
The Sharks, meanwhile, have won three of their four games in Vodacom Super Rugby Unlocked and lost one, despite having scored more than 20 points only once so far this season.
The Durbanites will announce their team on Thursday morning.
Griquas: 15 Masixole Banda, 14 Ederies Arendse, 13 Harlon Klaasen, 12 Johnathan Francke, 11 Eduan Keyter, 10 George Whitehead (captain), 9 Zak Burger, 8 Johan Momsen, 7 Stefan Willemse, 6 Gideon van der Merwe, 5 Cameron Lindsay, 4 Adre Smith, 3 Ewald van der Westhuizen, 2 HJ Luus, 1 Mox Mxoli.
Replacements – from: Monde Hadebe, Andrew Beerwinkel, Madot Mabokela, Carl Els, CJ Velleman, Theo Maree, Tinus de Beer, Daniel Kasende, Bandisa Ndlovu, Ewan Coetzee, Ashlon Davids.
Date: Friday, November 13
Venue: Griqua Park, Kimberley
Kick-off: 19.00 (17.00 GMT)
Referee: Griffin Colby
Assistant referees: Rasta Rasivhenge, Paul Mente
TMO: Jaco Peyper
