Sharks to play Saracens in London

The Cell C Sharks will use a travel opportunity presented by their Vodacom United Rugby Championship schedule to visit London to play a friendly match against Saracens in early January.

The Sharks will travel from Italy, where they are due to play Benetton on 8 January, play Saracens at the StoneX Stadium in North London a week later, on 15 January. Iff the teams are anything close to full strength it could be quite a match up of star England and Springbok players. Billy Vunipola, Jamie George, Maro Itoje and regular England captain Owen Farrell play for Saracens, as does Springbok prop Vincent Koch.

By January, the Sharks should have a full complement of players back in action after missing almost an entire squad to Bok commitments during the initial phases of the URC. Should regular skipper Lukhanyo Am, World Cup winning Bok captain Siya Kolisi, recent recruit Bongi Mbonambi, Ox Nche, Thomas du Toit, Makazole Mapimpi, Aphelele Fassi and Sbu Nkosi all be present it will be a good measure of the relative strengths of South African franchise and English club rugby.

“To be able to play this fixture in London against a team that has had such a strong South African link over the years is very exciting for us,” said Sharks CEO Eduard Coetzee in announcing the fixture via a press release on Wednesday afternoon.

“In line with our vision of taking the Sharks brand to the world, this will also provide the team with a wonderful opportunity to react with our UK fan base and to grow our brand in a very attractive overseas market.”

The Sharks have a gap of over a month between their second home game against Parma Zebre on 4 December and the trip to Treviso and there is then a break of three weeks before they are due to start the derby phase of the URC season against the DHL Stormers in Cape Town, so the Saracens game will help keep the players sharp in what could otherwise be a tricky gap between games.