Two weeks is a long time in professional rugby and much can change. Two weeks ago the Steval Pumas lost to the Cell C Sharks at Growthpoint King’s Park. The defending Currie Cup champions had to change their game plan drastically in the second half against a motivated Pumas, for a 34-17 victory.

The scoreline in the Absa Currie Cup match between the two sides tonight will be much closer.

The Pumas are a much-improved squad, learning from errors and working hard on the training field to eliminate weaknesses. They convincingly beat a good Griquas team with limited possession and little territorial advantage last Friday.

The Sharks know this will be one of their toughest away matches of the season and are not judging the Pumas on the Durban match.
“They are a strong prospect at home and unbeaten in Mbombela this season. There are things they would have learnt about us from our first-round game, and things we will recall from their game. Our drive worked very well against them so they will probably put some work into trying to stop that. We played with some nice width and created some opportunities on the outside, so they will look to shore up the drive and defensively make sure there are no opportunities on the outside,” said head coach, Brad Macleod-Henderson on Wednesday.

After the less-than-impressive performance against the Cheetahs, the Sharks will be determined to prove they are a dynamic, attacking squad.

Coaches Jimmy Stonehouse and MJ Mentz made six changes to the match 22. Heinrich Steyl is injured and JW Bell takes his place at number 15. Ruwellyn Isbell has a personal commitment and has been excused from the team. Jerome Pretorius moves from the left wing to take his place and Rosko Specman is in his favoured number-11 jersey. Dylon Frylinck starts at scrum half, with Reynier van Rooyen moving to the bench. Coenie van Wyk, who played eight matches at full back for the Lions in the Super Rugby competition earlier this season, is injury-free and finds himself on the bench.

The Cell C Sharks will start with Conrad Hoffman at scrum half. He makes a straight swap with Cameron Wright who will be on the bench. JC Astle replaces Marco Wentzel at lock.

After coming out of an injury-enforced retirement, JW Jonker has re-established himself as one of the best outside centres in South Africa and will earn his 50th Pumas cap tonight.
Former teammate and current assistant coach of the Pumas, Mentz said of Jonker, “JW’s best qualities on the pitch is that he brings a certain calmness to the players. He has great communication skills on both attack and defence. Due to his sevens skills, his work rate is very high and although he is small, he is our Jonah Lomu in the team with his power drives.”
The match promises to be a massive battle to secure quality possession in the set pieces and dominate at the breakdown. Both teams’ backs will run hard and precision on defence could be the factor that decides this clash.
Kick-off is at 19:10. Tickets are on sale at Computicket and the stadium.

Steval Pumas
1. Corné Fourie, 2. Francois du Toit, 3. Vincent Koch, 4. Frikkie Spies, 5. Giant Mtyanda, 6. Corné Steenkamp (c), 7. Uzair Cassiem, 8. Renaldo Bothma, 9. Dylon Frylinck, 10. Justin van Staden, 11. Rosko Specman, 12. Stefan Watermeyer, 13. JW Jonker, 14. Jerome Pretorius, 15. JW Bell, 16. Frankie Herne, 17. DeJay Terblanche, 18. Marius Coetzer, 19. Jaco Bouwer, 20. Reynier van Rooyen, 21. JC Roos, 22. Coenie van Wyk.

Cell C Sharks
1. Dale Chadwick, 2. Kyle Cooper, 3. Matt Stevens, 4. Etienne Oosthuizen 5. JC Astle, 6. Jacques Botes, 7. Francois Kleinhans, 8. Tera Mtembu (c), 9. Conrad Hoffmann, 10. Fred Zeilinga, 11. Tonderai Chavhanga, 12. Paul Jordaan, 13. S’bura Sithole, 14. Odwa
Ndungane, 15. SP Marais, 16. Franco Marais, 17. Lourens Adriaanse, 18. Stephan Lewies, 19. Johan Meyer, 20. Cameron Wright, 21. Heimar Williams, 22. Lionel Cronje.

Magic milestone
The Sharks’ Jacques Botes was born in Nelspruit and will play his 150th Currie Cup match tonight, the first player to achieve this. He played his first 27 Currie Cup matches for the Pumas from 2002 to 2004.

Fascinating facts
Two players in the Steval Pumas starting 15 have played sevens rugby for South Africa. They are Specman and Jonker. Wing, Isbell and assistant coach Mentz have also donned the sevens green and gold.

Jonker played for the Free State Cheetahs against the British and Irish Lions in 2009 and for the South African Barbarians North against England in 2012.

Key matchup
Specman vs Ndungane: Former teammates of the Sharks, the two speedsters will face each other tonight. The outcome should be magic.

Read more on the Pumas previous game against the Sharks