The Sharks final action in this season’s United Rugby Championship sees them host bottom of the log Zebre in Durban on Saturday
Sharks v Zebre, Saturday 16th May, Durban, KO 13:45 (South African time)
Referee: Adam Jones (Wales)
Assistant referees: Griffin Colby (South Africa) and Sean Muller (South Africa)
TMO: Paul Larter (Scotland)
Weather Forecast - Durban
Sharks:
The Sharks are tenth in the standings with a record of 7 wins, 1 draw and 9 defeats. They have 41 log points but their chances of making the play offs disappeared some time ago.
In Round 17 the Sharks put Benetton away 46-7 whilst other recent home games saw them chalk up back to back home wins over Munster (45-0) and Cardiff (21-15).
The damage has largely been done overseas. The writing already looked to be on the wall in terms of the Sharks play of hopes and that was confirmed as they lost at the Ospreys (21-17) and then Edinburgh (33-28) in Rounds 15 and 16.
Zebre:
Zebre are rock bottom with just the 2 wins alongside 15 defeats and given they are 10 points adrift of the Dragons and Scarlets that is where they will finish.
In Round 17 Zebre went down 54-19 to the play off chasing Bulls at Loftus. Prior to that Zebre suffered the narrowest of defeats at Edinburgh (31-30) and at home to the Dragons (19-18). In earlier home matches against SA opposition Zebre edged out the Lions 22-20 in Round 2 and they lost 31-13 to the Stormers in Round 4.
Line Ups:
Sharks: 15 Zekhethelo Siyaya, 14 Jaco Williams, 13 Jurenzo Julius,12 Andre Esterhuizen (captain), 11 Litelihle Bester, 10 Vusi Moyo, 9 Bradley Davids, 8 Nick Hatton, 7 Emmanuel Tshituka, 6 Siya Kolisi, 5 Emile van Heerden, 4 Jason Jenkins, 3 Vincent Koch, 2 Eduan Swart, 1 Ox Nche
Replacements: 16 Fez Mbatha, 17 Phatu Ganyane, 18 Hanro Jacobs, 19 Deon Slabbert, 20 Matt Romao, 21 Ross Braude, 22 Jean Smith, 23 Le Roux Malan
Zebre: 15 Mirko Belloni, 14 Malik Faissal, 13 Luca Morisi, 12 Damiano Mazza, 11 Simone Gesi, 10 Giovanni Montemauri, 9 Alessandro Fusco (c), 8 Samuele Locatelli, 7 Bautista Stavile, 6 Alessandro Ortombina, 5 Matteo Canali, 4 Franco Carrera, 3 Ion Neculai, 2 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo, 1 Muhamed Hasa.
Replacements: 16 Giovanni Quattrini, 17 Luca Franceschetto, 18 Matteo Nocera, 19 David Odiase, 20 Giampietro Ribaldi, 21 Iacopo Bianchi, 22 Migael Prinsloo, 23 Martin Roger Farias
The Betting,
Average early show
Sharks -26.5 points at 9/10
Zebre +26.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
Bets:
Tips, more news and betting angles for Round 18 of the URC will be available on Brent Graham's betting blog which is available here.
Brent’s plays for Round 14 of Super Rugby will be available here
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.
