OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday 12.31pm.
THE Sharks will have to make do without the services of lock lynchpin Mark Andrews and centre Andre Snyman when they take on the the Hurricanes in their Super 12 opener in Wellington on Friday.
The new-look Sharks boast a strong team despite the unavailability of the two Springboks and it is upfront where they will be looking to assert their dominance.
Their loose-trio consisting of skipper Wayne Fyvie, Charl van Rensburg and eighthman AJ Venter is one with real class, with locks Albert van den Bergh and Philip Smit probably as mobile as flank forwards. If anything, the Sharks locks may be a tad light, but their front row forwards certainly aren’t.
Ollie le Roux, Mornay Visser and Brent Moyle are all in excess of 100kg, with Le Roux and Moyle well over 120kg.
Fyvie, of course, has to fill the shoes of former Bok and Sharks skipper Gary Teichmann, but he is no newcomer to the Super 12 and will be right at home.
Among the backs Springbok centre Pieter Muller will take his place alongside Gaffie du Toit at flyhalf and Trevor Halstead at outside centre. Du Toit will be the man to watch, and if he can combine with Muller as well as his predecessor Henry Honiball did then the Hurricanes can expect some punishment.
A fine battle awaits if Jason Spice is unable to play for the Hurricanes, with South African Joggie Viljoen squaring up against Chad Alcock.
Justin Swart, Stefan Terblanche and Ricardo Laubscher make up the back three, and while there is pace aplenty, the three are not in the same league as some of the other teams’ weaponry.
The Hurricanes have an exceedingly dangerous back three with Christian Cullen and Jonah Lomu being the prime attacking players, and they have to be starved of the ball.
It is up front where the Hurricanes are the weakest, and if the Sharks can take advantage of their opponents’ deficiencies and new law-changes the game can be won by the forwards.