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Facing the legendary All Blacks’ haka will be a wonderful experience for the Sharks players when they line up against the tourists in the second game of the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry (RGR) series in Durban on Tuesday, coach JP Pietersen says.After beating the Stormers in their opening game in Cape Town on Friday, the tourists head up the coast to face a Sharks side who will be smelling blood in the water at Kings Park (kickoff 7pm).𝑲𝒂 𝑴𝒂𝒕𝒆 as we kick off in South Africa 🖤🤍 pic.twitter.com/9Abq65UPrt— All Blacks (@AllBlacks) August 7, 2026 Thanks to a late surge, the All Blacks emerged with a 38-21 win over the Stormers in a match watched by 47,000 fans at the Cape Town Stadium.The final scoreline flattered the All Blacks as they were made to work hard for their win against a fired-up home side who took the fight to the New Zealanders.“It will be wonderful for our guys to face the haka in Durban,” Pietersen said.“It is beautiful to have the All Blacks in Durban after such a long time. It will be a fantastic occasion, and we are super excited to host them.“It is unfortunate, in a way, that our players are disconnected from New Zealand and Australia at franchise level.“We don’t watch that much Super Rugby as we used to because we are focused on the European sides.“It will be awesome to see our young talent playing against New Zealand. It will be exciting to see what we can do against such classy players.“Many of our players have never played against a New Zealander.”Adding an extra level of intrigue to the clash is the inclusion of All Blacks legend Ma’a Nonu on the bench for the Sharks.After his team’s win over the Stormers, All Blacks coach Dave Rennie said: “It was a good introduction for us to South African rugby and a proud province.“It felt like whichever side had the ball got rewarded by the referee.“We gave away a number of scrum penalties, and they were able to piggyback their way, and then a handful of more penalties and then obviously yellow cards.“For us to give away as many penalties as we did and go into halftime in front highlights a lot of the character that the boys showed under a bit of pressure.“We knew that they’d come at us with their set-piece, so we’ve got to be better in those areas.“We expected a lot of aerial attacks, and again, we probably didn’t deal with that as well as we wanted.“But just a heap of character, and we’re very well conditioned; we felt if we could hang on to the ball, we could eventually find space and hurt them. And we were very clinical late in the game.SquadsSharks: 15 Zekhethelo Siyaya, 14 Donovan Don, 13 Jurenzo Julius, 12 Murray Koster, 11 Litelihle Bester, 10 Vusi Moyo, 9 Bradley Davids, 8 Nick Hatton (capt), 7 Manu Tshituka, 6 Phepsi Buthelezi, 5 Emile van Heerden, 4 Hendre Stassen, 3 Vincent Koch, 2 Eduan Swart, 1 Nemo Roelofse. Replacements: 16 Liam van Wyk, 17 Rambo Kubekha, 18 Simphiwe Ngobese, 19 Vincent Tshituka, 20 Matt Romao, 21 Ivan van Zyl, 22 Luan Giliomee, 23 Ma’a NonuNew Zealand: 15 Damian McKenzie, 14 Fehi Fineanganofo, 13 Quinn Tupaea, 12 Jordie Barrett, 11 Caleb Clarke, 10 Ruben Love, 9 Kyle Preston, 8 Wallace Sititi, 7 Luke Jacobson (capt), 6 Tupou Vaa’i, 5 Sam Darry, 4 Josh Lord, 3 Fletcher Newell, 2 Asafo Aumua, 1 Ethan de Groot. Replacements: 16 Bradley Slater, 17 Ollie Norris, 18 Pasilio Tosi, 19 Ethan Blackadder, 20 Semisi Ta’eiloa, 21 Cam Roigard, 22 Timoci Tavatavanawai, 23 Emoni Narawa
