The injury to Paul Gallen and the one week suspension handed down to Chris Heighington has forced Sharks coach Shane Flanagan to make two changes to the team which was narrowly beaten by the Cowboys in round one of the Telstra Premiership.
Gallen, who is set to miss up to six weeks after undergoing knee surgery last night, has been replaced in the number 13 jersey by Jayson Bukuya, while Gerard Beale and Joseph Paulo have been added to the Sharks interchange bench.
Paulo is set to become the 502nd Sharks NRL player when he runs out for his debut match in the blue, black and white on Sunday.
Sharks coach Shane Flanagan has retained his round one backline, with Ben Barba at fullback, Jack Bird in the centres and Valentine Holmes on the wing after the trio performed strongly last weekend in Townsville.
Despite going down to the Cowboys the Sharks showed enough to indicate they can quickly turn around their fortunes this weekend, however the Dragons, who were narrowly beaten by the Melbourne Storm in Monday night football, will be equally determined to register their first win of the 2016 season.
The Sharks team list for the local derby match on Sunday is as follows;
Round 2 NRL Team List
Sharks v Dragons
Sunday, March 13
Shark Park
Kick-off 4.00pm
1. Ben Barba
2. Sosaia Feki
3. Jack Bird
4. Ricky Leutele
5. Valentine Holmes
6. James Maloney
7. Chad Townsend
8. Andrew Fifita
9. Michael Ennis
10. Sam Tagataese
11. Luke Lewis
12. Wade Graham
13. Jayson Bukuya
Interchange
14. Gerard Beale
15. Matt Prior
16. David Fifita
17. Joseph Paulo
