The Sharks are in Galway for a United Rugby Championship clash with Connacht on Saturday and both these sides have been finding wins hard to come by.
Connacht v Sharks, Saturday 29th November, Galway, KO 21:45 (South African time)
Referee: Ben Breakspear (Wales)
Assistant Referees: Andrew Brace (Ireland), Jack MacNeice (Ireland)
TMO: Keith David (Wales)
Weather Forecast – Galway
Connacht:
Connacht have won 1 and lost 3 of their 4 matches, they have a game in hand on the majority of teams and so far they have picked up 9 log points which puts them in the lower half of the standings.
They started with a 26-15 home win over Benetton before a Round 2 home fixture against the Scarlets was postponed. In Round 3 Connacht travelled to Cardiff and they went down 14-8. They were also edged out by the Bulls 29-28 in Galay in Round 4 and most recently they were on the wrong side of another close game as they lost 17-15 away to Munster.
Last season Connacht hosted the Bulls in Round 7 and the South African’s came away with a 28-14 victory. Connacht did beat the Sharks here 38-30 in Round 2 of 2024/25 whilst in South Africa later in the campaign they lost at the Stormers (34-29) and at the Lions (26-7), defeats which contributed to them missing out on the play offs.
In the outright betting to win the URC title Connacht are 100/1 shots with Hollywoodbets
Sharks:
The Sharks have an overall record of 1 win, 1 draw and 3 defeats and with 8 points they are 1 place behind Connacht in the standings having played a game more.
They had to wait until Round 5 for their first win, 29-19 against the Scalets in Durban whilst a round earlier they went down 34-26 to Ulster in another home fixture
The Sharks spent the first three rounds in Scotland, Wales and then Ireland. A Round 1 clash with the Warriors in Glasgow saw them finish beaten 35-19 and they picked two log points from a 19-19 draw with the Dragons in Newport in Round 2 and after that they failed to trouble Leinster in Dublin in a 31-5 defeat.
The Sharks will host the Bulls in Round 7 nearer Xmas and in the outright betting to win the URC title they are 16/1 with Hollywoodbets
Team News
Connacht: 15 Seán Naughton, 14 Chay Mullins, 13 Hugh Gavin, 12 Cathal Forde, 11 Shayne Bolton, 10 Josh Ioane, 9 Ben Murphy, 8 Sean Jansen, 7 Paul Boyle (c), 6 Josh Murphy, 5 Darragh Murray, 4 Niall Murray, 3 Jack Aungier, 2 Dave Heffernan, 1 Jordan Duggan
Replacements: 16 Eoin de Buitléar, 17 Denis Buckley, 18 Sam Illo, 19 David O’Connor, 20 Seán O’Brien, 21 Matthew Devine, 22 Bundee Aki, 23 Sam Gilbert
Sharks: 15 Jordan Hendrikse, 14 Edwill van der Merwe, 13 Jurenzo Julius, 12 Francois Venter, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 George Whitehead, 9 Jaden Hendriks, 8 Emmanuel Tshituka, 7 Vincent Tshituka (captain), 6 Matt Romao, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Jason Jenkins, 3 Hanro Jacobs, 2 Fez Mbatha, 1 Phatu Ganyane.
Replacements: 16 Eduan Swart, 17 Lee-Marvin Mazibuko, 18 Mawande Mdanda, 19 Emile van Heerden, 20 Phepsi Buthelezi, 21 Grant Williams, 22 Le Roux Malan, 23 Hakeem Kunene
15% bonus on all deposits up to R30,000, 24th to 29th November at Hollywoodbets. T&C's apply
The Betting,
Average early show
Connacht -8.5 points at 9/10
Sharks +8.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
This Weeks Bets
Brent Graham's betting angle and plays for Week 6 of the United Rugby Championship and the international between Wales and South Africa will be posted on this Blog.
Finally, all this week's rugby tips from members of the Goodforthegame community can be found on the weekly rugby thread on our brand new discussion forum. If you haven't done so already, register a forum account here.