Sharks looking for gold with 18-year-old Zekhethelo Siyaya at flyhalf

There is no doubting the kid's talent. Hailing from rural northern KwaZulu-Natal, Siyaya has now played in all the Sharks' age group teams - and the senior side - in his short career. The talented backline player enjoyed a superlative 2024, scoring tries for his school, Westville, his province with the Sharks U18 side, and then the SA Schools team.

Now at the back-end of the United Rugby Championship season, Siyaya ran out at fullback for the Sharks in losses against Ospreys and Edinburgh, but put on an impressive display. His hot-stepping, power and ability to kick with both feet impressed coach JP Pietersen so much that he's named the teenager at flyhalf for Saturday's clash against Benetton.

But it's not just Siyaya's talent. There is a bit of a crisis at flyhalf for the Sharks at the moment, with Jordan Hendrikse and Siya Masuku out injured, while Chris Smith is leaving the club for pastures new in Italy at the end of the season. Another young talent in Vusi Moyo is also on the Sharks' books, but he is on Junior Springbok duty in the U20 Rugby Championship.

As such, game driver responsibilities fall on the young but talented shoulders of Siyaya.

"With Siyaya at No.10, we are planning ahead for the future," Pietersen told the press this week.

"We know Jean is moving on [to Benetton] in his last season with the Sharks, and we want to see if Siyaya have the capability to play flyhalf.

"It will be good if he can play more than one position. He played flyhalf in high school up until Under-16 before transitioning to fullback. So we will see what he can bring at No.10."

The next two weeks are difficult for the Sharks. Left with the sting of not making the URC playoffs, they host two dead rubbers in front of the home fans, where pride is all to play for.

"One must give credit to the group of players who played most of the games and kept a positive, fighting attitude to make the jersey proud," reflected Pietersen.

"And we've made the move to play Siyaya at No.10 to see if we can find some gold with him being in that position.

"We also want to see how Litelihle Bester tracks in his development, and it's also great to see Phatu Ganyane doing well at loosehead covering for Ox [Nche].

"A good performance will be satisfactory for us, but we are disappointed as Siya [Kolisi] mentioned earlier this week not to make the top eight - it still hurts, but all that we can do is put up a good performance."

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