The Hollywoodbets Sharks have surprised by naming a team well below full strength for Saturday’s final Investec Champions Cup pool match against Clermont-Auvergne at Hollywoodbets Kings Park (3pm).
There’s been a lot of talk out of the Sharks camp this week about them going all out in quest of the win that would give them an outside chance of sneaking into the round of 16, but the selection announced on Friday suggests they may have accepted their fate.
They have to rely on Sale Sharks beating Toulouse in Toulouse or winning by a massive score against Clermont and Saracens simultaneously getting hammered by a huge score by Glasgow Warriors at the Scotstoun in order to have any chance of advancing - and realistically none of those results seem likely.
Chasing the big win over Clermont would have been more a show than a genuine goal that was likely to be realised and it probably does make more sense for the Sharks to save their big guns for the back to back home and away Vodacom URC games against the DHL Stormers that come next.
Nick Hatton captains a team that has some star players such as Springbok fullback Aphelele Fassi back as well as Ox Nche, while the Hendrikse brothers, Jaden and Jordan, have been reinstalled as the halfbacks.
But otherwise there is some continuity from the side that was beaten 26-10 by Sale Sharks last week, which was really the game where the Sharks relinquished any realistic hope of mounting a competitive challenge in the Champions Cup.
The Sharks would probably have beaten a very ordinary Sale side and secured an advance to the round of 16 had they gone full strength to Manchester but there is no point in crying over spilt milk now.
With the French teams notorious for going under-strength for away games in the Champions Cup or when they feel their chances of doing well have been extinguished, which very much is the case for Clermont this week, the Sharks should still have a good chance of winning this game but it is less of a gimme than it appeared when it was assumed they’d be tackling it at full strength.
With the Stormers also fielding a weaker team against Leicester Tigers in Cape Town than would have been anticipated, although in their case it is because of injury, it does expose the folly for those who want to bet on these games of making a call earlier in the week rather than waiting until the Friday afternoon team announcements.
Perhaps of more concern is the issue of the uncertainty that is sown in a paying public who only get to know on the eve of a game which of their heroes will actually be playing in the game they are considering going to watch.
In this particular case the Sharks are going to be without Boks Edwill van der Merwe, Makazole Mapimpi, Ethan Hooker, Andre Esterhuizen, Grant Williams and Siya Kolisi.
The EPCR rule is that teams can only be announced at 14.30 the day before the game - the Stormers have exploited a loophole in the wording of the rule to get their announcement out earlier.
Hollywoodbets Sharks team: Aphelele Fassi, Yaw Penxe, Le Roux Malan, Jurenzo Julius, PK Sobahle, Jordan Hendrikse, Jaden Hendrikse, Nick Hatton (captain), Manu Tshituka, Matt Romao, Jason Jenkins, Corne Rahl, Hanro Jacobs, Bongi Mbonambi, Ox Nche.
Replacements: Eduan Swart, Phatu Ganyane, Vincent Koch, Emile van Heerden, Phepsi Buthelezi, Ross Braude, Siya Masuku, Hakeem Kunene.