Sharks have no time for hiccups

Sooner or later along the rocky Absa Currie Cup road even the best of teams must falter. The worst of it is that it usually happens when least expected - in outlandish places like Mossel Bay or George, Springs or Witbank - when the more-highly rated team for no apparent reason loses focus.

The Natal Sharks, strictly speaking, have had their hiccup, though it was unscripted, coming as it did against the Lions at Ellis Park. It was a game they seemed to have sewn up. One moment they were cruising comfortably to the winning post, the next - agonisingly, as they allowed themselves to be lulled into a sense of false security - they saw first prize slip from their grasp.

Lack of concentration was the chief cause of that defeat and, hopefully, a Sharks team who on occasion this season have veered off course, will not allow that frailty to creep in again at Witbank today against the in-form, physically tough Pumas.

It is not only at forward the Sharks will need to have their wits about them. With Casper Steyn returning to fullback, a new centre pairing in former Bulls Test player Danie van Schalkwyk, and Springbok Sevens star Dale Heidtman, and the canny Marius Goosen's vast experience to draw on at flyhalf, it's a backline full of running and guile.

The Sharks were hit by the late withdrawal at Thursday's practice of young Luke Watson, but thankfully have the equally polished services of Solly Tyibilika to call upon. They will be equally pleased to welcome back captain Shaun Sowerby, after his two-week absence nursing a groin injury.

Brent Russell, pawing at the turf in his anxiety to get on the pitch, starts his first Currie Cup match of the season at fullback in a timeous return as Justin Swart, too, is nursing an injury.

Butch James returns at flyhalf, with Nathan Spooner on the bench as back-up, and the rugged pivot no doubt will be conscious of the fact that continued dominant form will stand him in good stead should Louis Koen suffer the misfortune of last-minute withdrawal from the Springbok squad through injury.

Dave von Hoesslin, who seems to have established himself as the favoured scrumhalf option, once more partners James at halfback, and given the chunky scrumhalf's outstanding form of late, it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that he, too, might find himself in the frame if Neil de Kock's shoulder injury fails to respond sufficiently.

Just a week ago the Pumas beat the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein and, as coach Kevin Putt well knows, Goosen's team are always more difficult to master at home on a field that is as bleak and unforgiving as the concrete stands that surround it.

However, that said it's still a game the Sharks ought to be able to add to the credit side of the ledger - that is, provided they don't lose concentration.