THE Sharks will take all the omens they can get as they rally for a big push to the Super Rugby play-offs. So fielding their first unchanged team of the season will certainly be seen as a positive portent as they look to build on the crucial win last week against the Highlanders when they play the Force at Kings Park on Saturday.
It has taken 11 rounds for John Plumtree to field the same starting line-up, not to mention the same bench, and having made six changes to the run-on team the week before and been rewarded with a hard-fought victory, the coach has given the same players the green light.
That means no return to the match 22 for flanker Willem Alberts, fullback Riaan Viljoen and loosehead prop Dale Chadwick, the former two having been dropped because of poor form and the latter because of the return to fitness of Tendai Mtawarira.
Plumtree said the changes he made last week - some because of form, some because players had recovered from injury - had worked a treat and he has no hesitation in keeping the same combinations.
Furthermore, the Sharks' greater squad is showing its best health of the year, with only lock Ross Skeate and propJulian Redelinghuys unavailable due to injury.
'We are third in the South African conference and have ambitions of finishing higher, so to have so many players back from injury at such a vital stage of the competition is obviously a positive,' Plumtree said. 'When you have continuity in player personnel, combinations improve in performance and consolidate. You find good players not making the 22, which creates the competition you want in training. Everybody knows there is a hungry competitor in his shadow.
'That's what you want to create - a situation where opportunities are taken and the pressure then comes on from the hungry players knocking on the door,' said Plumtree.
Sharks starting XV: Louis Ludik, JP Pietersen, Paul Jordaan, Tim Whitehead, Lwazi Mvovo, Patrick Lambie, Charl McLeod, Keegan Daniel (capt), Marcell Coetzee, Jacques Botes, Anton Bresler, Steven Sykes, Jannie du Plessis, Bismarck du Plessis, Tendai Mtwarira. Replacements: Craig Burden, Wiehahn Herbst, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Jean Deysel, Ryan Kankowski, Frederic Michalak, Meyer Bosman.
