SARrugby.com

Francois Steyn’s maturity has landed him the captaincy for The Sharks opening warm-up match this Friday night against the Leopards in Pietermaritzburg, the first of two pre-season friendlies The Sharks will play.

Capped 56 times for The Sharks before he left for a period of club rugby in France, he returned to South Africa last year and played two Super Rugby matches before the knockout rounds in his return to his former club.

He has also represented South Africa on over 50 occasions, and now finds himself a fairly senior player whose maturity and expected match requirements have pointed to him as a natural leader in the team. With last year’s vice-captain Bismarck du Plessis still in rehab for a knee injury and expected to miss the first few rounds of Super Rugby, it makes a lot of sense to have Steyn deputise for team captain Keegan Daniel.

“Frans Steyn is going to captain the team because Keegan is going to play off the bench in our warm-up game this Friday,” explained coach John Plumtree after Tuesday morning’s field session.

“I saw him as good back up to Keegan and it’s an opportunity for him to grow his leadership. I’ve noticed a big difference in him in terms of his personality and character since he’s come back from France. The players have a lot of respect for him as an individual and as a player.

“He’s a very competitive person, he doesn’t like to come second in anything he does and he’s probably going to be a regular starter.”

The Sharks side to play the Leopards is an interesting mix of new and old, with Franco van der Merwe getting a run for his new team together with the likes of regular campaigners in Jacques Botes, Jean Deysel, Charl McLeod, Patrick Lambie, Lwazi Mvovo and Odwa Ndungane all starting, with plenty of experience to come off the bench.

1. Allan Dell
2. Kyle Cooper
3. Wiehahn Herbst
4. Pieter-Steph du Toit
5. Franco van der Merwe
6. Jacques Botes
7. Jean Deysel
8. Lubabalo Mtembu
9. Charl McLeod
10. Patrick Lambie
11. Lwazi Mvovo
12. Francois Steyn (Captain)
13. Tim Whitehead
14. Odwa Ndungane
15. Riaan Viljoen

Replacements
16. Craig Burden
17. Tendai Mtawarira
18. Jandre Marais
19. Anton Bresler
20. Keegan Daniel
21. Cobus Reinach
22. Meyer Bosman
23. Paul Jordaan
24. Louis Ludik

Thats actually a good starting team, without the big names on the bench. I would have started with Reinach though. but this does give us a show of plums thinking. Mcleod is not your 1st choice.

Gpoodman

I would not read too much into this team - look very much to me like the second level string of the Sharks with a few rare exceptions being in thst starting line-up.   I think it is aimed to give the lower ranked players in the squad an opportunity to show what they can produce.   The bench players will be brought in later on as a practice run in playing conditions.

Looking again at the Sharks team - there appears to be only 4 playes that would be in the startng line-up of the Super 15 series - with question marks about even some of them.  Those are the following:-

*   Pieter-Steph Du Toit

*   Patric Lambie

*   Lwazi Mvovo

*   Francis Steyn

Most serious contenders are on the bench - there are 8 players mentioned of which 7 are likely to start in the team to play in the first Super Series game.   I think the team for that game is likely to be as follows:-

15  Ludick

14  Pietersen

13  Jordaan

12  Steyn

11  Mvovo

10  Lambie

  9  Reinach

  8  Daniel

  7  Alberts

  6  Coetzee

  5  Du Toit

  4  Bressler

  3  Du Plessis

  2  Burden

  1  Beast

However, there will be some interesting players to watch in the game on Saturday and those are the following:-

*   Pieter-Steph Du Toit  - a real prospect tht has he opportunity to assure his selection as front line player for the Sharks

*   Francois Steyn - will he show he is a center and not a loosie playng at center

*   Cobus Reinach - will he confirm his position as top scrummie of the Sharks 

All three could end up being Springboks this year - provided they can correct their 2012 shortcomings (Steyn) and the others can prove that they are really Springbok material.