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Durban - Sharks coach Robert du Preez has selected his strongest available squad to take on the Bulls in Saturday’s warm-up match at Ashton College in Ballito.
Aside from a few minor niggles from last Sunday's game against the Lions in Cape Town, there are no new injury concerns for the Sharks.
"We're all good to go for Saturday," Du Preez told the Sharks' official website.
Explaining his selection, the coach pointed out: "The plan is to potentially start the same team against the Bulls that we would pick to play in our opening Super Rugby game. This match is very much a dress rehearsal for the Sunwolves game next Saturday.
"We have two full teams and when the game is finished on Saturday, everyone involved in the pre-season would have played, rewarding each one of them for the hard work they've put into this pre-season."
Du Preez the good fortune of having an almost full squad of players at his disposal, with just a handful of players unavailable due to injury, but who are making steady progress and will return to action not too long from now.
Tendai "Beast" Mtawarira, Akker van der Merwe and Coenie Oosthuizen will start in the front row with Hyron Andrews and Ruan Botha partnering at lock. Jacques Vermeulen, Tyler Paul and Dan du Preez complete the back-row trio.
Captain Louis Schreuder and Curwin Bosch start as the halfback pairing with Marius Louw and Lukhanyo Am partnering in midfield. A young and exciting back three complete the team, with Du Preez going with Makazole Mapimpi, S'bu Nkosi and Aphelele Fassi.
There is plenty of exciting young as well as experienced talent among the reserves.
Kick-off is at 14:00 on Saturday.
Teams:
Sharks
15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 S'bu Nkosi, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Marius Louw, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Curwin Bosch, 9 Louis Schreuder (captain), 8 Dan du Preez, 7 Tyler Paul, 6 Jacques Vermeulen, 5 Ruan Botha, 4 Hyron Andrews, 3 Coenie Oosthuizen, 2 Akker van der Merwe, 1 Tendai Mtawarira
Substitutes: 16 Juan Schoeman, 17 Fezo Mbatha, 18 Khutha Mchunu, 19 Ruben van Heerden, 20 Gideon Koegelenberg, 21 Wian Vosloo, 22 Luke Stringer, 23 Phepsi Buthelezi, 24 Cameron Wright, 25 Robert du Preez, 26 Lwazi Mvovo, 27 Andre Esterhuizen, 28 Jeremy Ward, 29 Leolin Zas, 30 Courtney Winnaar, 31 Kerron van Vuuren, 32 Grant Williams, 33 Rhyno Smith
Bulls
15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Cornal Hendricks, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Dylan Sage, 11 Rosko Specman, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Embrose Papier, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Thembelani Bholi, 6 Ruan Steenkamp, 5 Lood de Jager (captain), 4 Jason Jenkins, 3 Trevor Nyakane, 2 Schalk Britz, 1 Lizo Gqoboka
Substitutes: 16 Johan Grobbelaar, 17 Matthys Basson, 18 Conraad van Vuuren, 19 Hanro Liebenberg, 20 Paul Schoeman, 21 Jannes Kirsten, 22 Tim Agaba, 23 Andre Warner, 24 JT Jackson, 25 Jade Stighling, 26 Divan Rossouw
