The Sharks will look to extend their winning run on home soil when they host the touring Sunwolves in Durban on Friday night.
The Sharks have won their last three Super Rugby home games, outscoring their opposition by a combined 111-25.
This will be the first meeting between these teams, though the Sharks have won six of their last nine games against teams from outside of South Africa.
The Sharks made six changes to their starting team line-up. Amongst the forwards, Thomas du Toit replaces regular captain Tendai Mtawarira at loosehead prop. Mtawarira drops completely out of the squad and veteran Springbok JP Pietersen will lead the side from outside centre in his final regular home fixture.
Pietersen will play in his 136th Vodacom Super Rugby match.
Springbok Pat Lambie, out with concussion since the June 11 Test in Cape Town, is bracketed on the bench alongside Junior Springbok star Curwin Bosch. Lambie will undergo further tests before a decision on his availability is made.
The Sunwolves have lost each of their six away fixtures and endured a cumulative score line of 97-332. They have also recorded the worst tackle success rate this season (79%) while the Cell C Sharks are boasting with the third best (87%).
Teams: Cell C Sharks: 15 Rhyno Smith, 14 Odwa Ndungane, 13 JP Pietersen (captain), 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Garth April, 9 Stefan Ungerer, 8 Philip van der Walt, 7 Tera Mtembu, 6 Keegan Daniel, 5 Ruan Botha, 4 Etienne Oosthuizen, 3 Coenie Oosthuizen, 2 Chiliboy Ralepelle, 1 Thomas du Toit.
Replacements: 16 Kyle Cooper, 17 Dale Chadwick, 18 Lourens Adriaanse, 19 Stefan Lewies, 20 Jean Deysel, 21 Michael Claassens, 22 Curwin Bosch/Pat Lambie, 23 Heimar Williams.
Sunwolves: 15 Riaan Viljoen, 14 Hajime Yamashita, 13 Derek Carpenter, 12 Mifiposeti Paea, 11 Yasutaka Sasakura,10 Yu Tamura (captain), 9 Kaito Shigeno, 8 Edward Quirk, 7 Taiyo Ando, 6 Liaki Moli, 5 Faatiga Lemalu, 4 Hitoshi Ono, 3 Shinnosuke Kakinaga, 2 Takeshi Kizu, 1 Keita Inagaki.
Replacements: 16 Futoshi Mori, 17 Masataka Mikami, 18 Takuma Asahara, 19 Naohiro Kotaki, 20 Yoshiya Hosoda, 21 Yuki Yatomi, 22 Ryohei Yamanaka, 23 Kentaro Kodama.
Referee: Rasta Rasivhenge
Assistant referees: Cwengile Jadezweni, Archie Sehlako
TMO: Marius Jonker
South Africa Today Sport – Rugby News