Akker van der Merwe movwes to the Sharks

The following from News24:-
"The Sharks have confirmed the signing of Golden Lions hooker Akkers van der Merwe and will be available for immediate Currie Cup selection.

Van der Merwe, 26, will join the Durban-based franchise on a two-year deal.

He will meet up with Robert du Preez's team on Monday as they prepare for their Currie Cup encounter against the Blue Bulls on Wednesday, August 9.

The Sharks made it two wins out of two so far this season, after defeating the Griquas at King's Park with a bonus-point 41-3 win on Friday.

Van der Merwe made his Super Rugby debut for the Lions in 2014 and capped off his Super Rugby career for the Johannesburg-based franchise with a 50th appearance in the final on Saturday.

The Lions went onto lose 25-17 against the Crusaders in the Super Rugby final at Ellis Park.

He has earned 38 caps for the franchise and has scored eight Super Rugby tries."

Akker is at this stage the bench hooker for the Lions and his moving to the Sharks is a wise career move in his part,   So he is to replace Ralepelle - which future rugby will be defined by playing fir the Springboks - what a load of BS.  

  

rr Akkers is a WORLD class hooker who is vastly underrated. The picking of a never has been like Chili proves agan how far we are from merit selection. Combrnck was a must as well as Janse van Rensburg. Makes you want to puke all over the racist anc.
The Sharks are building up the best pack in South Africa and could be very serious Super  Comp  contenders next year is the can get their backl ine going.

 
It was inevitable ... sad to see him go ... but a must in the end. Keeping such a talent out for most of each match is sinful.

Of all the teams he could have gone to ... I'm delighted he selected the Sharks.

 CC the Stormers are saddle with two mediocre hookers. However the Stormers are locked into quotas so w e will continue to struggle. I wonder if this Lions teams is now going to split up? 

 
Yes Beeno ... the Stormers could be so much more ... and as we know it all starts up front.

Your hookers are pathetic in comparision to Ackers and to be honest I'm a little surprised you guys didn't put in a bid for his services.

It seems that the Stormers management are happy with their quotas at 2 ... and elsewhere.

I also have fears of the Lions players going their own way now that coach Ackerman's a thing of the past.

Hopefully Coach Swys will manage to keep the team in tact. 



 

 Its all about money and I guess Akkers had to go on that basis. You could see however he was very emotionally attached to the team.The Lions rise to such high levels begs the question. Why cant the Bulls, Stormers and Sharks with greater financial resources have done the same or more. The lions had a team of nobodies who became somebodies playing a great brand of rugby. The inability to put it all together is a huge problem. I do think however the Sharks are on the rise. Bulls are still floundering and Stormers simply wont select on merit etc - you can see they are all about trans formation and not necessarily merit. You cant win on this BS. Now we have a second rate Bok squad selected!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!