Saracens beat the Sharks 23-15 in Saturday's friendly Super Rugby warmup game for the Currie Cup champions. Both teams were extremely physical at Allianz Park, so here is one of the biggest hits of the game, plus a compilation of some of the others.
It was billed as a friendly but there was no love lost out there as both sides looked like they had something to prove, with cross-hemisphere rivalries coming to the fore, as well as a few old friends getting reaquainted. Saracens do have a decent South African contingent after all.
One of those is big lock Mouritz Botha, who seemed to enjoy the physical tussle with the big Sharks players. His heavyweight clash with wrecking-ball Jean Deysel was brutal, even if Deysel was sold by an unforgiving pass from his scrum half.
"I love it when big lads just run straight at you, and they had some really big, physical guys playing for them. It was just a great day and I really enjoyed myself out of there today," said Botha.
Both sides made impressive big tackles and charges, with Deysel and Willem Alberts particularly prominent. View a compilation of the rough stuff on page two of this post, the match highlights on page three and Botha's thumping tackle on Deysel below.
Should these type of fixtures be played more regularly?
All the big hits and charges from a very physical encounter between the two sides. Look out for Deysel, Alberts, Botha and Jacques Burger all throwing their weight around.