Unchanged Sharks to tackle Tahs
Sharks Director of Rugby Gary Gold named an unchanged team for their opening match on the Australian leg of their Super Rugby tour.
The Sharks take on the Waratahs in Sydney on Saturday and will feature the same matchday 23 that came agonisingly close to beating the Hurricanes last week.
The players that were feeling the aftereffects of last week's bruising encounter have all passed fitness tests and were named to face the Tahs – Renaldo Bothma, Lwazi Mvovo and Bismarck du Plessis.
Gold said the key is to put the "massive disappointment" of last week's 24-32 loss in Wellington behind them.
"A lot of character was shown by the group against a very good Hurricanes team," the Sharks boss said, adding: "The challenge is to try and repeat that [character] this week in as tough a challenge, if arguably more so."
He said there was a lot of "constructive talk" in the tour group this week and the players have worked "extremely hard" ahead of an encounter with a very good Waratahs team.
"There is a lot of pride at stake," Gold said.
"We've been bitterly disappointed this year, for various reasons, and it's important for us to show that we're still in this fight to the end."
The Sharks boss said the Waratahs are a "very physical team, probably the most physical Australian team".
"We saw what the Force did to them last week [beating them 18-11] by matching them from a physical point of view, so that's the challenge for us."
Sharks: 15 Lwazi Mvovo, 14 Odwa Ndungane, 13 JP Pietersen, 12 Frans Steyn, 11 Sibusiso Sithole, 10 Lionel Cronje, 9 Stefan Ungerer, 8 Renaldo Bothma, 7 Etienne Oosthuizen, 6 Marcell Coetzee, 5 Marco Wentzel (captain), 4 Stephan Lewies, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements: 16 Franco Marais, 17 Dale Chadwick, 18 Lourens Adriaanse, 19 Mouritz Botha, 20 Kyle Cooper, 21 Conrad Hoffmann, 22 Andre Esterhuizen, 23 Waylon Murray.
Date: Saturday, May 16
Venue: Allianz Stadium, Sydney
Kick-off: 19.40 (11.40 SA time; 09.40 GMT)
Referee: Rohan Hoffmann
Assistant referees: Angus Gardner, Will Houston
TMO: George Ayoub
