The DHL Western Province Under-19 team will travel to Durban with plenty of pride at stake when they take on the Sharks Under-19s at Kings Park on Saturday (kick-off 15h00).

The WP Under-19s were knocked out of semifinal contention last Saturday – when they lost 13-21 to the Lions in Cape Town – but coach Nazeem Adams has challenged his troops to rise to the occasion in their final league encounter of the season.

Adams told www.wprugby.com: “The players, whilst disappointed (after last weekend), were very positive at training this week – right up until today.

“The fact remains (is) that we were our own worst enemies against the Lions, as we have been this whole season, but there is a lot of pride at stake for us and the players want to end the season on a high.”

The Sharks have already secured a semifinal place – and look likely to end third on the overall standings this season – but Adams is not worried about his team's opponents.

“The players have learnt a lot this season and I've challenged them to use this maturity to end the season with a victory. There is nothing at stake (in terms of the play-offs), but I know they will give a good account of themselves on Saturday.

“Yes, the results have not been good… but we've been able to develop and grow some players (this season) and, of course, we are currently playing with three schoolboys, JD Schickerling, Jarryd Sage and Dewald Naude, in our team.

“I spoke to JD, Jarryd and Dewald this week – they're very keen to play and for them to experience playing against the Sharks at Kings Park, at their age, will do wonders for their rugby development and ahead of next season.”

Adams has made five changes to his team from last weekend, the most notable being a positional swap between Chris Smith and Jason Worrall; Smith moving from flyhalf to fullback and Worrall from fullback to flyhalf.

“It's something I've been thinking about for a while,” explained Adams.

“Chris, sometimes, plays a bit too deep at flyhalf, so I thought I would give Jason a run in the No.10 jersey this week. If it doesn't work, I'm always able to swap them around during the game.”

The DHL Western Province Under-19 team to take on the Sharks is as follows:

15. Chris Smith
14. Dewald Naude
13. Jarryd Sage
12. Michal Haznar
11. Dalen Goliath
10. Jason Worrall
9. Pieter Schoonraad
8. Ramone Samuels (captain)
7. Luke van der Smit
6. Johan de Villiers
5. Sebastian Negri
4. JD Schickerling
3. Liam Hendricks
2. Chad Solomon
1. Wesley Adonis

Replacements:
16. Josh Moon
17. Michael van Tonder
18. Nathan Gogela
19. Attie van Rensburg
20. Steve Meiring
21. Jonty Breddell
22. Wesley Cupido
23. Shane Grundlingh

Referee: Eduan Nel