Sharks coach opens up on midfield shuffle

REACTION: Sharks head coach Sean Everitt has explained his midfield selection for Saturday's United Rugby Championship clash against the Bulls in Pretoria.

The combination of Lukhanyo Am at No.12 and Jeremy Ward at No.13 struggled in the 10-20 defeat to the Stormers in Cape Town and Everitt has now opted to go for a more familiar selection for the clash at Loftus Versfeld.

Am returns to his No.13 jersey, while Marius Louw is rewarded for his form in the Currie Cup and will start in the No.12 jersey.

"Marius has played well every time he has put a Sharks jersey on, so I wouldn’t say it's full circle," Everitt told reporters on Thursday.

"Obviously, there were things that we tried with Lukhanyo at 12, but we just feel that Marius deserves an opportunity now that he has had two really good games in a row - the one against Griquas and the one here at home against Western Province.

"I think he was one of the standout backs in that game [against WP], so he deserves a shot and if a guy puts his hands up then we need to select him."

Everitt said it was a setback to lose Ben Tapuai to injury in that draw against the Stormers a few weeks ago.

"There is a setback from an experience point of view," Everitt explained. "The guy has played international rugby [for Australia] and obviously, he has got a really good skill set and I think we saw glimpses of that at Ellis Park in Johannesburg a few weeks ago.

"That is one of the reasons we kept Lukhanyo at No.12 from a playmaking perspective and it doesn’t change much because you are able to change what you are doing and Marius has been in the set-up for long enough.

"It's good that we are able to move Lukhanyo back to a position where he is comfortable on defence."

The Sharks will also have two big names on the bench in the form of Sikhumbuzo Notshe and Curwin Bosch for Saturday's clash.

"It is good to have Curwin back.  He showed good form last week as well from a kicking perspective and obviously Notshe gets his long-awaited return to play.

"He also had an outstanding 55 minutes for the Currie Cup team. They deserve their opportunities on the bench and the changes that we made is to reward players that are showing form in the Currie Cup," said Everitt.

On the injury front, Jeandre Labuschagne hurt his AC joint and was the only injury setback from the defeat to the Stormers.

There was some good news surrounding Tapuai.

"Ben will be out for a few weeks, not months as we initially thought, so that is really good for us.

"Hopefully, we will be welcoming him back soon," Everitt added.

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