After a convincing victory over the Stigma Lions, the British and Irish Lions will be looking to repeat the dose against the men from Durban.
The Sharks are the next South African provincial side to take on the tourists, with the teams locking heads in Johannesburg on Wednesday evening.
Will the Lions run riot against the Sharks or will the men from KZN provide a potential banana peel moment for Warren Gatland’s charges?
Sharks v British and Irish Lions
Wednesday 7 July
Emirates Airline Park
19:00
To Win (80 Minutes)
Sharks 10/1
Draw 28/1
Lions 1/25
Handicap
Sharks (+27.5) 9/10
Lions (-27.5) 9/10
Fronting Up
The British and Irish Lions issued a warning shot to the Bulls and Sharks this past weekend as they swatted away the Sigma Lions 14-56 with Welsh winger Josh Adams the star of the show as he bagged five tries.
The opening stanza of the game made for interesting viewing with the tourists’ starting strong and running in three tries before Vincent Tshituka pulled one back for the hosts just before the break.
There were tries a plenty after the break with the British and Irish Lions scoring seconds after the restart and Joburg’s finest pulling one back a couple of minutes later. From then on it was the tourists who dominated as they cut through the Lions porous defensive line at will.
One expects the sharks to put in a better defensive shift than their compatriots did this past weekend. It’s no secret that the calibre of provincial players has dropped over the past few years, but this Sharks side is laden with talent.
For the South African outfit, the key figure this Wednesday evening will be Curwin Bosch. The fly-half is capable of causing the Lions problems but he really needs to be assured on defence as the tourists will inevitably look to run at his channel when given the chance.
I really like the look of the Sharks’ backline. If they can front up on defence, the likes of Bosch, Jeremey Ward, Werner Kok, Thaakir Abrahams and Manie Libbok can cause problems for the Lions on attack. They have underwhelmed at times in domestic competition, however, and will all need to put in massive shifts behind a scrum that will likely be going backwards if the Durban franchise are to stay competitive.
There will be a lot of pressure on the Sharks’ front row. The promising young trio of Khwezi Mona, Fez Mbatha and Khutha Mchunu will never have faced a front row boasting the quality of Mako Vunipola, Lucke Cowan-Dickie and Zander Fagerson.
Verdict: Lions (-27.5) 9/10
The Lions really do love a game against the Sharks winning the 1997 encounter 12-42 and the 2010 encounter 3-29. I expected the Sharks to be more of an attacking threat than the classes of ’97 and 2010 but I cannot see them keeping up with this Lions side for the entirety of the fixture.
