Defeat at Newlands would keep the Sharks at the bottom of the SA Conference

It might seem a touch premature to be talking about pressure when Super Rugby is only nudging into the second round but raise the loathed issue with the Sharks next week if they have lost to the Stormers in Cape Town today and you might get a prickly response.

Defeat at Newlands would keep the Sharks at the bottom of the SA Conference and facing an absolute must-win when the Lions, their supreme conquerors in the Currie Cup final, come to Durban for a third-round match. The Sharks then host the Reds before heading off on tour, and sometime before their bon voyage, they have to start winning, particularly when you consider that the first tour match is in Sydney, a city where the Sharks have been winless since Hugh Reece-Edwards’ team won there in 2000 – the only match the Sharks won that year, funnily enough.

But we digress. The Sharks clearly have to win some time before Sydney. A loss to the Stormers would mean two defeats in a row, and then the self-doubt starts creeping in and then suddenly a home match against the Lions is a much bigger mountain than it would have been pre-season, and then next week is the visit of the defending champions from Queensland, and you don’t want them sniffing out a team in trouble.

In short, the Sharks need to get out of the starting blocks tomorrow after having been left stone dead when the starter fired the gun last week at Loftus Versfeld.

A sign of a good team is the ability to immediately bounce back from a defeat, but to be fair to the Sharks, this is easily said than done when you have just lost before 50 000 hostile spectators in Pretoria and 50 000 of the same sentiment await at Newlands, backing a home team that is not far off being intact from the one that won the SA Conference last year.

So it hasn’t been the kindest draw for the Sharks but then this competition is not for pansies. You blossom or you fade away.

Speaking of players that are the antithesis of flimsy flowers, it was a disappointment when No 8 Willem Alberts, who masquerades on the rugby field as a mobile railway sleeper, failed a fitness test on a shoulder problem that the medical staff has been rehabilitating since the Currie Cup final.

Alberts, like fellow Springbok loose forward Jean Deysel, is being handled with caution given the burly pair’s long-term benefit to the Sharks’ cause, but boy could the Sharks use their ability to get their team across the advantage line.

But Alberts will be saved for his old team, the Lions next week and Deysel’s comeback is scheduled for the first tour game.

In changes to the side to play the Stormers, coach John Pluumtree has raised eyebrows by dropping Springbok tighthead prop Jannie du Plessis for the emerging Wiehahn Herbst, a selection that is as much about Du Plessis’ early season form as it is about the youngsters’ hunger.

Jannie will be back in due course but in the meantime Herbst will get stuck in.

“We want to give Wiehahn an opportunity, he’s had a really good pre-season and it’s a good time for him to have a crack in a big game,” coach John Plumtree said. “It’s the same with Ross Skeate who comes in to the second row (for Anton Bresler). We’ve had to make a change amongst the loose-forwards obviously with Ryan Kankowski out (with a broken thumb) and with Jacques Botes coming off the bench at flank and playing really well against the Bulls last week, he gets a chance to start.

“It’s disappointing for us that Willem hasn’t made it,” Plumtree continued, “but (Sharks Under-21) Tera Mtembu has done well in the pre-season, so it’s an opportunity for him.”

Plumtree confirmed that inside centre Tim Whitehead has been ruled out with a groin injury, opening the door for Meyer Bosman, with Marius Joubert promoted to the bench.

Stormers: 15 Joe Pietersen 14 Gio Aplon 13 Juan de Jongh 12 Jean de Villiers (c) 11 Bryan Habana 10 Gary van Aswegen 9 Dewaldt Duvenage 8 Nick Koster 7 Duane Vermeule 6 Siya Kolisi 5 Andries Bekker 4 Eben Etzebeth 3 Brok Harris 2 Tiaan Liebenberg 1 Steven Kitshoff.
Subs: Scarra Ntubeni, Frans Malherbe, De Kock Steenkamp, Nizaam Carr, Louis Schrueder, Peter Grant, Gerhard van den Heever.
Sharks: 15 Riaan Viljoen 14 Louis Ludik 13 JP Pietersen 12 Meyer Bosman 11 Lwazi Mvovo 10 Pat Lambie 9 Frederic Michalak 8 Keegan Daniel (c) 7 Marcell Coetzee 6 Jacques Botes 5 Ross Skeate 4 Steven Sykes 3 Wiehahn Herbst 2 Bismarck du Plessis 1 Dale Chadwick.
Subs: Craig Burden, Jannie du Plessis, Anton Bresler, Lubabalo Mtembu, Charl McLeod, Marius Joubert, Paul Jordaan.