No easy task for Sharks, Lions as SA sides face high-flying Welsh outfits

We really do live in a very different rugby landscape these days, and even a few years ago who would have thought that there would be a double-header of matches on a Sunday evening, just three days from December?

This is 2022 and the United Rugby Championship, and rugby fans get to watch rugby allyear, with the Sharks hosting a match on New Year’s Eve.

Today we see the Lions taking on the Dragons at Ellis Park at 4pm and at 6.10pm, it is another Welsh team, Cardiff, who visit Hollywoodbets Kings Park.

The Welsh invasion started on Friday night when the Scarlets were beaten by the Stormers, and yesterday afternoon the Bulls hosted the Ospreys.

The expectation is the four Welsh regions would collectively perish on SA soil over this weekend.

Their teams travelled without their Welsh internationals (Wales played Australia yesterday), although the SA teams are without their Springboks, and the Sharks have suffered and they are fielding what is a second-string team.

The Sharks are hosting the best performing of the Welsh teams – Cardiff are sixth on the log – and of the four matches, the Sharks are in for the toughest battle.

There has been a significant improvement from Cardiff on their last URC performance, when they finished 14th .

They have won four of their seven matches this season, to install themselves as the leading Welsh side .

Cardiff can boast of ending the 15-match unbeaten run of reigning champions over the Stormers at the Arms Park earlier this year.

The Lions host a Dragons team that is also on the up. They won jtwo URC matches last season, and finished 15th, but they have already surpassed that after just seven fixtures, with home victories over Munster, the Ospreys and Zebre, and are in 10th place on the log .

I predict the Lions to win fairly comfortably, and for the Sharks to get over the line, but with difficulty.

TEAMS

LIONS: Quan Horn, Rabz Maxwane, Henco van Wyk, Marius Louw, Edwill van der

Merwe, Jordan Hendrikse, Sanele Nohamba, Sti Sithole, PJ Botha, Ruan Dreyer, Ruben Schoeman, Reinhard Nothnagel (CAPT) Emmanuel Tshituka, Ruhan Straeuli, Francke Horn

Replacements: Jaco Visagie, JP Smith, Asenathi Ntlabakanye, Pieter Jansen van Vuren, Sibusiso Sangweni, Andre Warner, Gianni Lombard, Zander du Plessis DRAGONS: Angus O’brien, David Richards, Steff Hughes, Jack Dixon, Sio Tomkinson,

Sam Davies, Lewis Jones; Aki Seiuli, James Benjamin, Lloyd Fairbrother, Joe Davies,

Sean Lonsdale, Aaron Wainwright, Ben Fry, Ross Moriarty (CAPT)

Replacements: Ellis Shipp, Josh Reynolds, Chris Coleman, Matthew Screech, Huw

Taylor, Che Hope, JJ Hanrahan, Jordan Williams

SHARKS:

Anthony Volmink, Marnus Potgieter, Francois Venter, Rohan Janse van Rensburg, Werner Kok, Boeta Chamberlain, Cameron Wright, Dian Bleuler, Kerron van Vuuren, Carlu Sadie, Justin Basson, Gerbrandt Grobler, James Venter (CAPT), Vincent Tshituka, Sikhumbuzo Notshe Replacements: Dan Jooste, Khwezi Mona, Khutha Mchunu, Hyron Andrews, Phepsi Buthelezi, Bradley Davids, Lionel Cronje, Ben Tapuai

CARDIFF: Ben Thomas, Jason Harries,

Rey Lee-lo, Max Llewellyn, Theo Cabango, Jarrod Evans, Lloyd Williams, Rhys Carré, Liam Belcher, Dmitri Arhip, Lopeti Timani, Rory Thornton, Josh Turnbull (CAPT), Thomas Young, James Botham

Replacements: Kristian Dacey, Corey Domachowski, Will Davies-king, Seb Davies, Gwilym Bradley, James Ratti, Ellis Bevan, Mason Grady