Sharks start their Boks against Toulon in France

The Sharks have named a strong team packed with Springboks for their Super Rugby warm up match against Toulon on Thursday evening.

Durban based Super Rugby side the Sharks will face Heineken Cup and Top 14 Champions Toulon at their home ground on Stade Mayol.

Sharks Director of Rugby Gary Gold is expecting his Sharks to face a “massive challenge”.

“This match is going to be the first really competitive game of the season, against a team that has qualified for the Heineken Cup quarter-finals already and yes, they will be more prepared than us and more game ready than us, that’s the challenge,” said Gold.

“But the reason why we wanted to be here is to put ourselves under this kind of pressure.”

“It’s going to be a massive challenge, one we’re very excited about. I’m really happy they we are going to be playing such a quality team.”

The Sharks have embarked on an exciting partnership with Durban Tourism and for this game, the Durban Tourism logo will appear on the back of the playing shorts

The match will be televised on SuperSport 1 from 21h50 in South Africa.

Sharks

15. SP Marais , 14. S’bura Sithole , 13. Waylon Murray , 12. Heimar Williams , 11. Lwazi Mvovo , 10. Pat Lambie , 9. Cobus Reinach , 8. Tera Mtembu , 7. Renaldo Bothma , 6. Marcell Coetzee , 5. Pieter-Steph du Toit , 4. Mouritz Botha , 3. Matt Stevens , 2. Bismarck du Plessis (C) , 1. Tendai Mtawarira

Replacements , 16. Kyle Cooper , 17. Dale Chadwick , 18. Lourens Adriaanse , 19. Monde Hadebe , 20. Marco Wentzel , 21. Etienne Oosthuizen , 22. Andre Esterhuizen , 23. Paul Perez , 24. Odwa Ndungane , 25. Conrad Hoffmann , 26. Fred Zeilinga