Sharks (Currie Cup)

Sharks

Full name	Sharks
Union	KwaZulu-Natal Rugby Union
Emblem(s)	Shark
Founded	1890
Region	KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Ground(s)	Hollywoodbets Kings Park Stadium (Capacity: 54,000)
President	Brian van Zyl
Director of Rugby	Neil Powell
Coach(es)	JP Pietersen
Most appearances	Hugh Reece-Edwards (165)
Top scorer	Hugh Reece-Edwards (1114)
Most tries	James Small (51)
League(s)	Currie Cup
2023	Semi-Finals 2nd on the log
Team kit
Official website
www.sharksrugby.co.za
Current season

The Sharks (known as the Hollywoodbets Sharks for sponsorship reasons) are a South Africa rugby union team that participates in the annual Currie Cup tournament. The Sharks are the current representative team of the KwaZulu-Natal Rugby Union and they draw some of their players from the KwaZulu-Natal Province. For most of their history, the team was known simply as 'Natal', with a nickname of 'The Banana Boys' or Piesangboere in Afrikaans, until the mid-1990s when they were re-branded as the Sharks.

The team is the third most successful provincial union in the Currie Cup, having won the competition eight times. Natal won its first Currie Cup in 1990, the same year the union celebrated its centenary. Since then the Sharks have won the Currie Cup in 1992, 1995, 1996, 2008, 2010, 2013 and most recently in 2018.

KwaZulu-Natal Rugby are a minority owner of the Sharks franchise who compete in the United Rugby Championship. MVM Holdings are the majority owner of the Sharks franchise. They also play in Durban and represent the province of KwaZulu-Natal. For most of Super Rugby history, the Sharks Super Rugby franchise drew players from a much larger area than the Sharks provincial union, with the rugby unions of Border, based in East London and Eastern Province from Port Elizabeth included in the Sharks franchise. In 2013 the Southern Kings functioned on its own, but has since been abolished and continue to supply a large contingent of players to the Sharks franchise.