URC Round 15 - teams and predictions

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS: The Sharks and Dragons, who meet in Durban on Friday, are both coming off heavy defeats last week.

It stands to reason that they will look to eliminate the errors and shortcomings that plagued them in Round 14.

However, the Dragons have been boosted ahead of this URC fixture with the arrival of five players in their camp in South Africa – Ross Moriarty, Will Rowlands, Taine Basham, Aaron Wainwright and Josh Lewis.

Sharks coach Sean Everitt believes this will make the Dragons ‘a different kettle of fish’ from the side that lost heavily to the Bulls last week.

“All the Europeans teams will be stronger than what we’ve faced over the last couple of weeks, because they’re getting their players back from Six Nations duty,” Everitt said.

“So no team in this competition can be underestimated.

“If you’re off your game on the day, you can get a big hiding.

“We expect a physical onslaught from them.”

However, for the Sharks, this is about not repeating the errors they made in last week’s loss to Edinburgh.

With the possibility of rain and guaranteed high humidity, the Sharks will need to be “more accurate” in their execution.

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“We have to look at the points we conceded,” Everitt told @rugby365com.

“We conceded three tries that we should have stopped. That meant we had to score four tries.

“In these conditions to score four tries, you have to do something special.”

Dean Ryan, the Dragons’ Director of Rugby, has also lost two of his key forwards – loose forward Ollie Griffiths (groin) and lock Ben Carter (concussion), both injury setbacks suffered in the 20-55 loss to the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld last week.

This is counterbalanced by the arrival of the internationals.

“We do have players coming in, but it’s a balancing act,” Ryan said.

“We have to be careful because three or four players don’t solve everything.

“We lost Ollie Griffiths against the Bulls, who has been huge for us, and we also lost Ben Carter, who hasn’t played any rugby for months.

“We have some players joining, but we will still be under pressure.

“But we will have more quality with those players coming in and we expect them to make an impact for us.”

Ryan has acknowledged that Dragons will face yet more South African power when they tackle the Sharks, but has called on his squad to again produce a display they can be proud of.

“I watched the Sharks game [a 5-21 loss to Edinburgh] and we are under no illusion of the power that came against Bulls is coming again on Friday,” Ryan said.

“The power that is capable of being delivered by the Sharks in the scrum and drive is very similar to what we faced against the Bulls.

“The wet weather conditions that we saw for the Edinburgh game are what I expect this week also.

* In the other Friday match the Warriors host Zebre in Glasgow.

Domingo Miotti will make his first start at fullback for Glasgow Warriors.

David Sisi will lead Zebre on Friday.

Danilo Fischetti and Jacopo Trulla are returning to the matchday XV for the Italian outfit.

Glasgow Warriors coach Danny Wilson said for the first 50 minutes of their 28-32 loss to Cardiff they played some great rugby.

“However, the last half an hour was well below the standards we expect of ourselves as a team,” Wilson said.

“We know we’ll need a full 80-minute performance on Friday against Zebre.

“Being back at home for our final regular-season home game is one of the motivators for us to put in a better performance.

“There is also added motivation as this could be Rob Harley’s final home game for the club. Rob epitomises what it means to be a Warrior and is a guy who has given a huge amount to the club and we want to celebrate his career with a strong showing tomorrow night.”

* The Friday teams and predictions are below …

Friday, April 1

Sharks v Dragons
(Kings Park, Durban – Kick-off: 19.30; 18.30 Ireland & UK; 17.30 GMT)

Prediction

@rugby365com: Sharks by 12 points

Teams

Sharks: 15 Anthony Volmink, 14 Werner Kok, 13 Ben Tapuai, 12 Jeremy Ward, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Curwin Bosch, 9 Jaden Hendrikse, 8 Phepsi Buthelezi, 7 Jeandré Labuschagne, 6 James Venter, 5 Gerbrandt Grobler, 4 Le Roux Roets, 3 Thomas du Toit (captain), 2 Mbongeni Mbonambi, 1 Retshegofaditswe Nche.
Replacements: 16 Kerron van Vuuren, 17 Ntuthuko Mchunu, 18 Khutha Mchunu, 19 Reniel Hugo, 20 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 21 Siyamthanda Kolisi, 22 Grant Williams, 23 Boeta Chamberlain.

Dragons: 15 Ioan Davies, 14 Jared Rosser, 13 Adam Warren, 12 Jack Dixon, 11 Jordan Olowofela, 10 Josh Lewis, 9 Rhodri Williams, 8 Ross Moriarty, 7 Ben Fry, 6 Harri Keddie (captain), 5 Will Rowlands, 4 Joe Davies, 3 Leon Brown, 2 Elliot Dee, 1 Greg Bateman.
Replacements: 16 Taylor Davies, 17 Aki Seiuli, 18 Mesake Doge, 19 Huw Taylor, 20 Taine Basham, 21 Lewis Jones, 22 Will Reed, 23 Jordan Williams.

Referee: Ben Blain (Scotland)
Assistant referees: Cwengile Jadezweni (South Africa), Morné Ferreira (South Africa)
TMO: Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa)

Glasgow Warriors v Zebre Parma
(Scotstoun Stadium, Glasgow – Kick-off: 19.35; 18.35 GMT)

Prediction

@rugby365com: Glasgow by 25 points

Teams

Glasgow Warriors: 15 Domingo Miotti, 14 Sebastian Cancelliere, 13 Kyle Steyn, 12 Stafford McDowall, 11 Cole Forbes, 10 Ross Thompson, 9 Jamie Dobie, 8 Jack Dempsey, 7 Rory Darge, 6 Ryan Wilson (captain), 5 Scott Cummings, 4 Rob Harley, 3 Murphy Walker, 2 Johnny Matthews, 1 Oliver Kebble.
Replacements: 16 Grant Stewart, 17 Jamie Bhatti, 18 Enrique Pieretto, 19 Kiran McDonald, 20 Ally Miller, 21 Sean Kennedy, 22 Duncan Weir, 23 Robbie Fergusson.

Zebre Parma: 15 Jacopo Trulla, 14 Junior Laloifi, 13 Erich Cronjé, 12 Enrico Lucchin, 11 Asaeli Tuivuaka, 10 Carlo Canna, 9 Alessandro Fusco, 8 Taina Fox-Matamua, 7 Iacopo Bianchi, 6 Potu Junior Leavasa, 5 Liam Mitchell, 4 David Sisi (captain), 3 Eduardo Bello, 2 Luca Bigi, 1 Danilo Fischetti.
Replacements: 16 Giampietro Ribaldi, 17 Paolo Buonfiglio, 18 Ion Neculai, 19 Andrea Zambonin, 20 Luca Andreani, 21 Guglielmo Palazzani, 22 Antonio Rizzi, 23 Michelangelo Biondelli.

Referee: Adam Jones (Wales)
Assistant referees: David Sutherland (Scotland), Graeme Ormiston (Scotland)
TMO: Sam Grove-White (Scotland)

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* Additional reporting by @dragonsrugby