Cape Town - Sharks coach John Plumtree hopes a good crowd at Kings Park can lift his team against the Lions - who he feels are favourites ahead of their Currie Cup clash on Saturday night.

The Sharks lost their most recent encounter 38-28 to the Lions in Super Rugby, and with most of their team away at the Springboks, playing the defending Currie Cup champions could be a tall order.

Therefore Plumtree is hoping for a nice crowd to lift his young side, who he has branded underdogs, despite showing great mettle in upsetting Western Province 25-23 at Newlands last week.

“We’re hoping to have a good crowd to support us, they can come down and also watch the Bok game on the big screen,”  Plumtree told the Sharks website.

“It’s important for us to get a crowd here, we’ve struggled to beat the Lions with a full strength side, so with 14 or 15 guys out, I don’t think we’ll be favourites to win this game. So we’re hoping we have some fans to help us out. Winning home games is vital in this competition, if you manage to pinch one away but drop one at home, it undoes a lot, so it’s very important that we do win.”

Like last week the team will be full of youngsters but the trio of Charl McLeod, Anton Bresler and Louis Ludik are back in contention after resting last week.

Plumtree confirmed that they are still waiting on centre Paul Jordaan, who injured his hamstring against WP. “He hasn’t trained this week yet but we’re hoping he will be right for Thursday’s training.”

The clash in Durban kicks off at 19:10 on Saturday night - after the Springbok Test against Argentina.