Ludik, Daniel back for Sharks

Although the Sharks clearly missed Bismarck du Plessis and Beast Mtawarira, who are unavailable because of the Springbok conditioning requirements, in last week’s 30-14 win over the Pumas in Witbank, the Durbanites are otherwise in fairly good health with most of the other players available for the match against their hoodoo team.

They still have a comfortable buffer at the top of the Currie Cup log, but the Sharks know that a defeat to the Cheetahs will bring both Saturday’s opponents and current second placed team Western Province into range.

Ludik’s return from injury will probably see Stefan Terblanche move from fullback back into the midfield for Riaan Swanepoel.

Sharks coach John Plumtree was satisfied with the five points the team picked up from their trip to Witbank last week, but is under no illusions that his men need to up their game.

“Witbank is always a tough place to go. The first half was picture perfect for us, but I was disappointed that we could not deal with the Pumas’ slowing of the ball in the second half,” said Plumtree.

“It was fair enough, I can’t complain because we did get the victory, but I have told the guys that we cannot expect to play like that against other teams and get away with it.”

Extra needle has been added to the match on Saturday by the continued tug of war between the Sharks and Cheetahs over the services of wing Lionel Mapoe. The Cheetahs won an arbitration procedure last month that forced Mapoe to return to Bloemfontein – but the player has stayed in Durban and has continued to train with the Sharks.

The Cheetahs have responded to this by serving court papers on both the Sharks and Mapoe informing them that it is an order of the court that Mapoe must return to Bloemfontein and report to training at the Cheetahs.

The Sharks are to respond to the order through their own legal team, so the off-the-field wrangling will provide a juicy back-drop to the build-up to the match.