Grant Williams gets a chance to fire for the Sharks in the No 9 jersey against Zebre in Saturday’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash at Kings Park.

Williams takes over from Jaden Hendrikse, who drops to the bench, with Ben Tapuai also coming in for Jeremy Ward at outside centre. There is just the one change to the Sharks pack for the clash with the Italians, coach Sean Everitt giving Ntuthuko Mchunu a start after the loss of Ox Nche to injury suffered in the Sharks’ 37-20 victory over the Scarlets on Friday.

“Like any international competition, no team can be taken lightly. In this competition, no one can be taken lightly, we saw that when the Scarlets put 35 points over Glasgow who are in the top three of the competition,” Everitt said.

“Zebre are an unpredictable side that kick the ball really well, and although they haven’t done that well on the log, they gave the Vodacom Bulls a good go for the first 40 minutes before the Bulls’ power game dominated them.

“But our focus is on our own performance at the moment, taking it week by week and we know that we need to get better and put in a better performance as a whole for 80 minutes.”

Sharks – 15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Werner Kok, 13 Ben Tapuai, 12 Marius Louw, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Curwin Bosch, 9 Grant Williams, 8 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 7 Henco Venter, 6 Siya Kolisi (c), 5 Reniel Hugo, 4 Gerbrandt Grobler, 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Ntuthuko Mchunu.
Subs: 16 Kerron van Vuuren, 17 Khwezi Mona, 18 Khutha Mchunu, 19 Le Roux Roets, 20 Phepsi Buthelezi, 21 Jaden Hendrikse, 22 Boeta Chamberlain, 23 Jeremy Ward.