Meyer on Sharks bench at Newlands
January 28 2010
New fly-half recruit Steve Meyer is set to get his first bit of game-time for his former team the Sharks when the Durban franchise comes up against the Stormers in a pre-season friendly in Cape Town on Friday night.
The 25-year-old former Kearsney College pupil left the Sharks to join up with Perpignan in 2006, but has returned on a two-year deal with the coastal franchise.
Meyer is sure to get some match practice under the belt during Friday's final friendly of the Tri-Series which also included the Western Force, but it will be Monty Dumond who once again starts in the number ten jersey.
The Sharks starting team from Tuesday night's loss against the Force has been completely reshuffled as they look to give those that were on the bench a shot at getting onto the Newlands pitch from the word go.
Young Pat Lambie comes in for the experienced Stefan Terblanche at full-back, while Springboks JP Pietersen and Odwa Ndungane will man the wings.
Waylon Murray retains his spot at outside centre with Adi Jacobs still battling with injury, but he will be joined by Andries Strauss in the midfield. Dumond and Kockott remain as the 9-10 combination.
Jean Deysel is the only loose-forward who will start once again in the back row, but he is joined by Keegan Daniel and Willem Alberts, with the latter getting his first Sharks start despite the Lions' insistence that he should not be turning out for the coastal franchise.
In a new-look second row and front row, locks Johann Muller and another new recruit Gerhard Mostert will start, while Jannie du Plessis gets a rare go at loosehead prop alongside brother Bismarck and captain John Smit.
Meanwhile, Stromers coach Allister Coetzee said hisside will not be lulled into a fall sense of security by the Sharks' listless performance against the Force.
The Stormers easily beat the Force in the first game on Saturday, but the latter bounced back by emphatically trouncing the Sharks on Tuesday night. On Friday night the two local franchises do battle and Coetzee expects a typical South African derby.
"We watched the game and I think one mustn't be deceived by what happened on Tuesday night. The Sharks had their pre-season and they know what their aims are. It was their first hit-out," he said.
"They've probably got their top squad for us this Friday night. It will be a hard, physical derby and it will be a hard game this week."
Coetzee said the Stormers main aim was to make sure their set piece was good enough and he thought their scrumming sessions with the referees paid off.
"Importantly, we need to get confidence in our structures, even if we play a weakened side, it's what we've been training for the past six weeks and we need to implement in some kind of pressure situations and build on that," he added
The former Springboks assistant coach said getting game time under the belt was very important for the players.
"Our aim is to give the guys a run and get them game time under the belt and I think it was the same for the Sharks who were doing the same against the Force.
"I also want to settle a few combinations and, from a 28-man squad, I would like to see that most of them have had almost two full games of match time. We still have the Boland friendly to make sure that Schalk (Burger) has played between 140 to 160 minutes of rugby.
Burger said he was looking forward to running out.
"It's a warm-up game so we're still pretty relaxed," he said.
"I'm looking forward to it. We've got a few systems to try and if it works we'll have a good game on Friday. "I'm definitely fresher than a couple of seasons ago, but obviously because of suspension and injuries I didn't play too much last year and I had a good December holiday. I'm feeling really fresh and I'm raring to go."
Coetzee said he wants the players to go out and have fun.
"I think the most important thing for this team is to go out and enjoy themselves. On Saturday the guys had good fun out there, great tries were scored and the guys were high-fiving, and that's what it's about - to go out there and express yourself and have fun," said the coach.
Stormers: 15 Joe Pietersen, 14 Gio Aplon, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Juan De Jongh, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Peter Grant, 9 Dewaldt Duvenage, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Francois Louw, 6 Schalk Burger (C), 5 Andries Bekker, 4 De Kock Steenkamp, 3 Brok Harris, 2 Tiaan Liebenberg, 1 Wicus Blaauw.
Replacements: 16 Deon Fourie, 17 JC Kritzinger, 18 Eusebio Guinazu, 19 Anton Van Zyl, 21 Pieter Louw, 22 Bolla Conradie, 23 Lionel Cronje, 24 Sireli Naqelevuki, 25 Frikkie Welsh, 26 Fabian Juries.
The Sharks: 15 Patrick Lambie, 14 Odwa Ndungane, 13 Waylon Murray, 12 Andries Strauss, 11 JP Pietersen, 10 Monty Dumond, 9 Rory Kockot, 8 Willem Alberts, 7 Jean Deysel, 6 Keegan Danie, 5 Johann Muller, 4 Gerhard Mostert, 3 John Smit (c), 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Jannie du Plessis.
Replacements: 16 Craig Burden, 17 Tendai Mtawarira, 18 Steven Sykes, 19 Ryan Kankowski, 20 Charl McLeod, 21 Riaan Swanepoel, 22 Stefan Terblanche, 23 Patric Cilliers, 24 Alistair Hargreaves, 25 Steve Meyer, 26 Luzuko Vulindlu, 27 Lwazi Mvovo.