Sharks backline....you can't be serious.

Face it Michalak and McLeod are wildly erratic. Whitehead is a carthorse......Bosman seems to be having trouble with his footing. Ludik is likely to knock himself out any moment....a wild man. And any ball kicked behind Mvovo is like a ball kicked behind Lomu.....a seemingly impossible conundrum.

And some would have us believe this cast of characters are going to trouble the mighty Stormers defence......you can't be serious. Hell Grant vs Michalak to the poles is worth 6 points for starters.

The Stormers have a big edge among the backs. A big enough edge that I'm calling this confidently for the good guys. 

Have the Sharks announced their team yet? Have not seen it anywhere.

Sharks: 15 Louis Ludik, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Tim Whitehead, 12 Meyer Bosman, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Frederic Michalak, 9 Charl McLeod, 8 Ryan Kankowski, 7 Marcell Coetzee, 6 Keegan Daniel (captain), 5 Anton Bresler, 4 Willem Alberts, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira

Substitutes: 16 Craig Burden, 17 Wiehahn Herbst, 18 Steven Sykes, 19 Jean Deysel, 20 Jacques Botes, 21 Odwa Ndungane, 22 Riaan Viljoen

News 24

So Lambie and Jordaan are out. Ludik however has upped his game and is playing good rugby.

Moz are you sugesting our backline will be better on attack?

That is not the best backline in the Super 15 -  Lambie and Jordaan leaves a massive gap in the backline.   A much better performance is possible if they have somebody to make sure that Pietersen and Mvovo gets the ball going forward.   None of Whitehead and "falling over his own feet with an open tryline" Bosman is able to do that   That would neutralize the attacking options of two of the most potent weapons of the Sharks.

The other attacking weapons are all amongst the forwards - with Bismarck and Alberts available.  

This is not the strongest Shark team available - and jet lag could play a major role.   Bluntly put - I would bet on the Stormers to win this one.

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 Meyer Boesman does not install confidence. Would much Rather have the whitehead at inside center- and someone else at outside center.

i would have had jp pieterson at 13 and whitehead at 12 and moved undungane out on the wing. i know that jp pietersone at 13 isnt very popular, but i found him to be a real threat, he completely outplayed All Black maa nonu there and also sparked many attacks.

ive got this feeling that the stormers confidence has gone up a notch and the sharks has gone down one, stormers might be doing a shark now and go in for the kill, now that they can smell blood.

Yes Hasbeen.....the centres are the key to the dominating backline. If one pair dominates it's rare for the other backline, as a whole, to be effective. Jean and Juan will put away the Sharks pair.

 Plumtree must get rid of Bosman and Viljoen and use that money to get a decent player (anyone) to replace these clowns.

Don't deserve to wear the Sharks gear.

Finish and Klaar.

omw meyer bosman (shake of the head)

well if jordaan is injured then surely the sharks may ask sanzar to use franna steyn again. yes moz you are right about the centers. but that is just on paper that the center are bigger names. we al know the game is not played on grass and not paper.

my boys in black can pull it off. lets hope for a decent spectacle on saterday with a lot of entertainment value for both sets of fans. that is what rugby is all about at the end of the day

plums will have a cards up his sleaves. stormers will be tested make no mistake about that

Sharks backline after beating the Stormers on 26may 2012

Sharks backline this weekend..Louis Ludik, JP Pietersen, Tim Whitehead, Meyer Bosman, Lwazi Mvovo, Frederic Michalak, Charl McLeod. with Odwa Ndungane, Riaan Viljoen on bench.

Personally i think the sharks backline is beter this weekend. Ludik is playing beter rugga than Lambie was and Whitehead is a revelation at centre this year.His distribution skills are compared by many to the great Conrad Smith of the Hurricanes.If you want to create tries you use Whitehead .If you want to just defend and run into people choose F Steyn.   Jean and Juan will struggle with the sharks pairing!

Plumtree has no brains.......the obvious choice would have been to keep the impressive Whitehead at 12 and played JP at 13. Playing Bosman in any backline is a complete liability.

Freddie has been great for the Sharks at 10, McLeod with that step and wind-up is slow in the service stakes, but the rest of his game is solid. Ludik has played well since his return........Mvovo is a class act and they should have played Mjekevu or Sithole on the other wing.

I would have gone with: 15. Ludik 14. Mjekevu 13. JP 12. Whitehead 11. Mvovo 10. Freddie 9. McLeod

Saffex

Always a pleasure to read your posts - however sometimes they contain ridiculous suggestions that I hope you are not seriously suggesting.    Lets look at the impact.   Moving the best wing in the world to 13 was a disaster - it nearly ruined Pietersen's image when Plumtree moved him there.   Despite the latter's motormouth - Pietersen was not a good 13.   His defencive lines was all mixed up and he did not enhance the performance of the wings were crippled.    That experiment did not last very long - did it?   Since Pietersen returned to wing - it was an entirely different story and he proved that he is indeed THE BEST WING IN THE WORLD.    Tpo move him back would be a disaster for the Sharks.   Some players can be moved to different positions and excell - but the Pietersen experiment at 13 proved that he is not one of those - end of story.

However, what was not as funny as wanting to play a player who have never played on Super 15 level at wing in the semi-final of the competition.    That really cannot be a serious suggestion!!!!!!   I know you theorize about players in different positions - but really are you serious about this one??????

Now lets look at the center combination now forced onto Plumtree and analyze them a bit.   Whitehead may be a reasonable 12 - but a 13 he is definitely not.   He is not inventive enough and has the speed of a snail.   Typical example was in the recent Sharks - Bulls game where he had a ten meter advantage over Spies and was hauled in within 20 meters.   Just too slow as a 13.

Bosman is a joke in bad taste.   He was good initially - but he has gone backwards in his playing career and at present is a joke in bad taste.    People gat a lasting impression of some players - mine is the falling over his own feet eith an open tryline in front of him.

Overall the situation is as follows:

No 15    -     I have no problem with Ludick - matter ogf fact he was outstanding in the absence of Lambie.

Wings    -    Hudely impressive.

Centers  -   Extremely poor

No 10     -   Michalak is one of the best players in the world in that position - he is very inventive, clever and reliable.

McCleod  -  Wildly erratic.   Before the Sharks-Reds game I identified him as the weakest link in teh Sharks backline.    His service to the backline is poor and the wild pass over the dead ball line is just an extreme example of his inability to be an acceptable scrummie.   

Early in the season Plumtree used Michalak at scrummie - Lambie at 10 and Viljoen at full back - with Pietersen at 13 and Ludick on the wing   The experiment did not work out - and some sensibility was the result.      He made the real changes necessary - by bringing in Jordaan at center and moved Pietersen - was playing career was badly affected and even potentially threatened - by moving him back to wing.   Plumtree moved Ludik back to full back and kept Michalak as scrummie.   That shows his real opinion of McCleod.

Now lets get back to reality.   Ludick is a very good full back and the wings are world class - but the centers are not.   Michalak is outstanding - but McCleod is a poor scrummie.    I think that the loss of Lambie is not a fatal disaster - the loss of Jordaan is one.   That means that unless the wings get the ball directly from Michalak, the loosies or Bismarck - they are from an attacking perspective neutralized.

You never credit Jean De Villiers as a player - but there is one thing he deserves credit for - he has an excellent rugby brain.   By now he would have analyzed how to deal with the centers of  the Sharks and I think that Saturday would not be nice to see what is done to them.