The final match of the weekend is on Saturday night at 20h35, when the Cell C Sharks will be looking to build on their impressive victory from last weekend and inflict another defeat on Cardiff in the Welsh capital.
After starting the season with a first-round victory over Connacht, Cardiff has lost their last two and will want to avoid a third consecutive defeat for the first time since last November.
Seated in the stands, the Sharks got a close-up look at Cardiff and the blueprint the Bulls provided to beat them. Superior physicality will be paramount and while they don’t possess the same firepower as the men from Pretoria, the Sharks do have strong ball carriers.
This will be more of a mirror match with the Durbanites having similar compact and fast back-rowers as their hosts, so this promises to be a high-octane affair on the 4G pitch.
Boeta Chamberlain’s hat-trick of drop goals stole the headlines in the Sharks’ historic 27-13 win over the Ospreys last Friday and as spectacular as they were, they formed part of a bigger picture, that being that they took their opportunities. They’ll put a premium on replicating that clinical conversion rate on their first visit to Cardiff Arms Park.
Lost in the thrill of their attacking antics was their stoic defence. With a 92% tackle success rate, they looked like a team transformed and adapted brilliantly after conceding a string of early ruck penalties as well. It’s these improvements I believe will get them over the line for the second successive week…by the narrowest of margins.
Cardiff Rugby has included all 10 of their Welsh internationals from the autumn squad in the matchday 23.
Josh Turnbull returns to the line-up to captain the side as Dai Young makes seven changes from last week’s defeat to Vodacom Bulls.
The skipper is re-joined in the back row by openside flanker Jenkins as Will Boyde makes a switch to number eight.
A direct swap at tighthead sees Dillon Lewis lining up alongside Rhys Carré and Kirby Myhill in the front row, while second-row Rory Thornton replaces Matthew Screech, who is ruled out.
Tomos Williams is given the nod at scrumhalf, partnering Rhys Priestland, who was recalled into the national set-up earlier this week.
A new-look centre partnership sees Owen Lane wearing the number 13 jersey, linking up with fellow Welsh international Willis Halaholo in midfield.
Josh Adams retains his place on the wing as Aled Summerhill is drafted onto the opposite wing and Hallam Amos makes way for Matthew Morgan at fullback.
Rhys Gill, Teddy Williams and Shane Lewis-Hughes are all in-line to make their first appearances of the season from the bench.
Director of rugby, Young, said: “Last week we had a really positive first half performance, but we let that slip in the second half. So this week has focused on finding solutions, because it’s too easy to just highlight the problems.
““We’ve got to learn that you will lose momentum in games. But you need to know a way of getting that momentum back.
“It will happen, but last weekend we continued to try and go for the double-top prizes.
“There’s learning for us, we’ve tried to grow and develop our game. We’ve shown glimpses of how good we can be.
“As I’ve mentioned before, it was only a matter of time before the South African sides started winning, and Sharks are heading into this one on a back of a good win over Ospreys.
“We’re looking forward to it. It’s been great learning for us and it’s fantastic to play against these teams.
“It’s great for the competition and it shakes everything up. We know we’re going to have to get better."
There are numerous factors that influence a team’s success, but for a Cell C Sharks team that face Cardiff Rugby in Saturday’s fourth-round Vodacom United Rugby Championship, there are four main ones.
This week head coach Sean Everitt will be looking for more of the same from his charges as they look to end the tour on a high after their commanding victory over Ospreys last week.
“We’re obviously very happy with the result we got on Friday night, and not just the result but the way we performed,” he explained in the lead-up to the match.
“We believe there are four things you need to do to win rugby games, one of them is discipline and I thought we were outstanding in that department, only conceding four penalties in the last 60 minutes of the game which contributed a lot to us winning the territory battle.
“Our discipline has improved vastly since the first game when we gave away 17 penalties, but conceded 10 against Glasgow and this last week nine, which is below the tournament average of 12, so we are doing well in that department.”
Everitt also admitted that the team performed well in the other three areas: set-piece, territory and defence which all determine whether games are won and lost.
“From a defensive point of view we were outstanding, Ospreys had many attacking opportunities but we were able to keep them out through some really solid defence.
“We also won the territory battle which was due to some really good game management from Ruan Pienaar and Boeta Chamberlain, the latter deservedly Man of the Match.”
The work-ons for us this week were the execution on attack, “We left a couple of opportunities out there and perhaps a bonus point as well, but we’ll continue to improve and looking forward to the final game on tour.”
With 11 internationals in their starting line-up over the first three games, Cardiff will present an enormous challenge, but not one the Cell C Sharks will back down from.
“Cardiff have a very proud home record and we’re expecting a hostile crowd which is great because it fires us up, but it is good to be playing in front of fans again.”
Everitt has made just three changes to the starting XV, Dylan Richardson coming in for James Venter and Henco Venter shifting from eighthman to flank to accommodate the return of captain Phepsi Buthelezi with Gerbrandt Grobler playing off the bench.
The final change sees Anthony Volmink starting on the wing for an injured Thaakir Abrahams left the field injured last week, with Curwin Bosch wearing the fullback jersey.
Cardiff Rugby: 15. Matthew Morgan, 14. Aled Summerhill, 13. Owen Lane, 12. Willis Halaholo,11. Josh Adams, 10. Rhys Priestland, 9. Tomos Williams, 8. Dillon Lewis, 7. Seb Davies, 6. Rory Thornton, 5. Josh Turnbull (c), 4. Ellis Jenkins, 3. Will Boyde, 2. Kirby Myhill, 1. Rhys Carré. Replacements: 16. Kristian Dacey, 17. Rhys Gill, 18. Dmitri Arhip, 19. Teddy Williams, 20. Shane Lewis-Hughes, 21. Lloyd Williams, 22. Ben Thomas, 23. Hallam Amos.
Cell C Sharks: 15. Curwin Bosch, 14. Marnus Potgieter, 13. Jeremy Ward, 12. Murray Koster, 11. Anthony Volmink, 10. Boeta Chamberlain, 9. Ruan Pienaar, 8. Phepsi Buthelezi (c), 7. Henco Venter, 6. Dylan Richardson, 5. Hyron Andrews, 4. Ruben van Heerden, 3. Thomas du Toit, 2. Kerron van Vuuren, 1. Ntuthuko Mchunu. Replacements: 16. Dan Jooste, 17. Khwezi Mona, 18. Wiehahn Herbst, 19. Reniel Hugo, 20. Gerbrandt Grobler, 21. James Venter, 22. Tian Meyer, 23. Werner Kok.