Ex Supersport
The arrival of Easter has brought a change in outlook for young Cell C Sharks flyhalf Tim Swiel, who gets an opportunity to make a statement in the team that faces the Toyota Cheetahs in a Vodacom Super Rugby derby at Growthpoint Kings Park on Saturday.
A week ago the word was that Swiel was not too upbeat as he settled into the reality that far from his move to Durban being an automatic passage to being a regular starter in Super Rugby, he was just one in a long queue. He knew Patrick Lambie was ahead of him, but might have been encouraged when he got a starting opportunity in the pre-season game against Saracens in London.
Alas for Swiel, after playing most of the match against the Bulls at Loftus as a replacement for the injured Lambie, reality quickly bit. For the next game he was out of the squad completely and Fred Zeilinga was installed as flyhalf. This was at a time when coach Jake White was also hinting broadly that Frans Steyn might get to wear the No 10 when his midfield resources were replenished.
At the start of the week White told the Durban media that he was undecided on whether to back Steyn to continue at flyhalf, which was where he spent most of last week’s match against the Lions, or bring Swiel into the starting team. He did though make it clear that Swiel, a recent export from Cape Town, would fit somewhere into the mix, which must have been music to the youngster’s ears.
That music would have grown ever more rhythmic for Swiel though when he discovered that White had ruled in his favour. He will play No 10 against the Cheetahs, something that the rest of the country learned on Thursday morning but which the former Western Province under-21 star must have known by Tuesday at the latest.
It’s a great opportunity for Swiel, who is possessed with undeniable talent, particularly if you subscribe to the view that while every team in this competition needs to be taken seriously, the Cheetahs and their porous defence and less than impressive away form are probably easier opponents than most. If there is a chance for Swiel to establish himself and settle those nerves that jangled maybe a little too much against both the Saracens and the Bulls, this is it.
Centre Paul Jordaan, who made his first tentative step back from a knee injury last week, is not in the squad for this game, and there has been no notification from the Sharks if he is injured again or perhaps just not quite ready to play. If he is out though, it might explain Swiel’s selection for this game as the option of playing Jordaan and S’bura Sithole together and Steyn at No 10 would have been taken away.
Swiel is not though the only player getting a chance to become a more permanent part of the well-oiled machine that the Sharks, even through the mini-injury crisis (it is very mini compared to last year!), have become. Remember that June day nine years ago when the Springboks gorged Uruguay in East London? Well the bloke who scored a record number of tries that day is back in Super Rugby.
Yep, Tonderai Chavhanga, the speed merchant from Zimbabwe who has arrived at the Sharks via stints at the Cheetahs, Stormers, Lions and a smattering of overseas clubs, is having his determination pay off for him with a starting place on the right wing against the Cheetahs in the absence of the injured Odwa Ndungane.
We use the word determination to describe “Tondy” as he pitched up in Durban earlier this year after his career had seemed at a premature end without a contract but resolved to make his presence felt. White let him be part of the pre-season training group without paying him – well at least without paying him anything significant – and now his ship has come in.
And against a Cheetahs team that does leak five pointers, don’t bet against Chavhanga making a meal of it on Saturday. If he still has that old pace, and White wouldn’t select him if he didn’t, he can make the statement he is looking for.
The selection of Chavhanga is another strike in favour of Lwazi Mvovo as a fullback and Sithole as an outside centre in the sense that White could easily have moved Sithole to the wing in place of Ndungane and introduced Heimar Williams to the midfield, or alternatively moved Mvovo to wing and accommodated SP Marais at fullback.
There is one other change to the side that beat the Lions, with former Sharks captain Keegan Daniel returning to the starting team for the first time this season at No 8, with Ryan Kankowski dropping to the bench.
Cell C Sharks team: 15.Lwazi Mvovo, 14.Tonderai Chavhanga, 13.S’bura Sithole, 12.Frans Steyn, 11.JP Pietersen, 10.Tim Swiel, 9.Charl McLeod, 8.Keegan Daniel, 7.Jean Deysel, 6.Marcell Coetzee, 5.Stephan Lewies, 4.Willem Alberts, 3.Jannie du Plessis, 2.Bismarck du Plessis (captain), 1.Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements: 16.Kyle Cooper, 17.Dale Chadwick, 18.Lourens Adriaanse, 19.Etienne Oosthuizen, 20.Ryan Kankowski, 21.Stefan Ungerer, 22.Heimar Williams, 23.SP Marais.
