Weekend teams

Check out the match 23s for this weekend’s Currie Cup matches. bettingx.club

CHEETAHS vs SHARKS XV (Friday, 5pm)

CHEETAHS – TBC

SHARKS XV – 15 Chijindu Okonta, 14 Christie Grobbelaar, 13 Marnus Potgieter, 12 Janco Purchase, 11 Lyle Matthews, 10 Tim Swiel, 9 Ross Braude, 8 Thomas Dyer (c), 7 Danilo Botha, 6 Willem van den Hever, 5 Deon Slabbert, 4 Johan Momsen, 3 Simphiwe Ngobese, 2 Kerron van Vuuren, 1 Cameron Dawson.
Bench: 16 Bryce Calvert, 17 Jaco du Toit, 18 Lee-Marvin Mazibuko, 19 Sipho Nonyalela, 20 Hanu Pieterse, 21 Ceano Everson, 22 Chris Horak, 23 Matthew Fortuin.

LIONS vs PUMAS (Saturday, 3pm)

LIONS – TBC

PUMAS – TBC

GRIQUAS vs BULLS XV (Saturday, 5:05pm)

GRIQUAS – TBC

BULLS XV – TBC

BOLAND CAVALIERS vs STORMERS XXIII (Sunday, 3pm)

BOLAND CAVALIERS – TBC

STORMERS XXIII – TBC

The post Weekend teams appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.

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The Carling Currie Cup shifts into round two this weekend with the Hollywoodbets Sharks XV playing back-to-back away games, this time to the central region to take on the Toyota Cheetahs in Bloemfontein on Friday.

The two teams occupy the top two spots on the log following their narrow, bonus point victories in round one, the Hollywoodbets Sharks seeing off the Airlink Pumas 26-24 and the Toyota Cheetahs also securing a two-point margin after defeating the Fidelity ADT Lions 29-27 on Sunday.

“We were very happy to get the win against the Airlink Pumas, that performance was really satisfying and to start the competition with a result like that goes a long way in terms of building confidence in the group,” explains Head coach Mike Vowles. “It’s also gone a long way in terms of cohesion and belief.”

Vowles has stuck with the motto: ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’ naming a team that features just one enforced change, Danilo Botha replacing Jannes Potgieter who suffered a knee injury in the early stages of last week’s match

“We haven’t made many changes, we feel that the more the team plays together, the better we’re going to get. We’ve brought in Danilo who joined us from the DHL Stormers, he played his age group rugby down there and we see him as a player with massive potential. He’s incredibly physical and given some time in our system, I think he’s going to be really good for us and someone to watch.”

For Vowles and his team, regular improvements is the theme, just getting better and better as the tournament progresses.

“We’re looking at the Toyota Cheetahs as another opportunity to build a bit of momentum, find some cohesion as a group and measure ourselves against a really good team.

“They’re a settled team who have played a lot of rugby together, they have some experienced players in their group and we anticipate a physical battle from them.

“But having seen what our group can do, I have no doubt we’ll be able to match them physically. But our focus is on ourselves and on us improving, finding cohesion and building on one performance after another, understanding that this competition isn’t won in round one or two, you have to consistently perform to stay at the top.

“There’s a really positive and good culture amongst the group, from Tom Dyer and his leadership group, they’re really guided this team well.”

Friday evening’s match against the Toyota Cheetahs at Toyota Stadium kicks off at 5pm.

Hollywoodbets Sharks

1. Cameron Dawson
2. Kerron van Vuuren
3. Simphiwe Ngobese
4. Johan Momsen
5. Deon Slabbert
6. Willem van den Hever
7. Danilo Botha
8. Thomas Dyer (Captain)
9. Ross Braude
10. Tim Swiel
11. Lyle Matthews
12. Janco Purchase
13. Marnus Potgieter
14. Christie Grobbelaar
15. Chijindu Okonta

Replacements

16. Bryce Calvert
17. Jaco du Toit
18. Lee-Marvin Mazibuko
19. Sipho Nonyalela
20. Hanu Pieterse
21. Ceano Everson
22. Chris Horak
23. Matthew Fortuin

The post Team Release: Toyota Cheetahs vs Hollywoodbets Shark XV appeared first on The Sharks Durban.

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Murray Mexted believes the All Blacks’ success in South Africa will depend on one thing above all else.

With Dave Rennie’s side preparing for the four-Test Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series, Mexted says too much attention has been paid to the results of previous matches against the Springboks and not enough to why the All Blacks came up short.

“I think possession is bloody important, but there’s no journalists that I read in our newspapers that talk about possession, how significant possession is,” Mexted said on the DSPN podcast.

Reflecting on New Zealand’s 2024 tour of South Africa during the Rugby Championship, where the All Blacks went down 31-27 and 18-12 to the Boks, the former All Blacks No 8 pointed to one statistic he believes tells the real story.

“We went to South Africa, we won 41% of the ball and 42% of the ball and we got beaten.

“Everyone talks about us getting beaten. Why did we get beaten? Well, we got beaten because we didn’t win enough ball. If you don’t get the ball, you don’t score points.”

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Mexted also warned that the Boks are only one part of the challenge awaiting the All Blacks.

“You can’t go to South Africa and have all those outside influences that exist in South Africa,” he said. “Don’t say they don’t because they do. There’s outside pressures that don’t exist anywhere else in the world.

“Altitude’s a big one. Environment’s another big one. And the third one is you’re playing against big men, big men that win possession, and they base their whole game on winning the ball and having the ball and smashing the opposition and putting the ball up in the air.”

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Mexted believes South Africa’s identity has remained unchanged for decades.

“They play a different type of game. They say, ‘We will monster you in Africa.’

“And that’s what they’ve been doing for bloody decades. They’re not going to stop now. That’s their game.”

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Photo: Anton Geyser/Gallo Images

The post All Blacks legend: Boks will ‘monster’ you appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.