After spending four years at Leinster, who visit the Sharks Tank on Saturday, Jason Jenkins knows only too well what he and his Hollyoodbets Sharks teammates are up against. And after starting his career at the Vodacom Bulls with RG Snyman, he also knows only too well the threat packed by arguably the best visiting player.
The Sharks host Leinster in a 14th round fixture at Hollywoodbets Kings Park, and after losing to a late penalty in a game they mostly dominated at Loftus, the log leaders will have arrived in Durban on a mission.
They won’t be at full strength, even if they do have some reinforcements subsequent to the Pretoria game, but after playing in many of the so-called second string Leinster games during his time with them Jenkins knows better than anyone that doesn’t make them much less formidable.
“Leinster have great systems. The players are coached exceptionally well from a young age,” said Jenkins.
“They aren’t as blessed as South Africa, which has a constant flow of players coming through so they have to focus more on a concentrated pool of players. It gives them more continuity. From Leinster’s point of view, all their players understand the game plan.
"I know personally how much effort goes into analysis and work off the field. It’s a massive point of difference for them.”
It is indeed, and the visitors have a big depth of resources in the coaching staff too, with Springbok World Cup winning coach Jacques Nienaber having taken over the senior assistant coach role from former England coach Stuart Lancaster under Leo Cullen since the start of last season.
Nienaber’s presence will add to the Leinster knowledge of what to expect from the Sharks, but listening to Jenkins speak, it appears unlikely that they will learn too much from analysing the Sharks’ most recent performance, which was their stop start but ultimately exciting 35-34 win over Zebre last weekend.
For the Sharks were way too loose in that game, and seemed intent on winning by a big score rather than just winning the game, something they could have achieved far more comfortably had they played more to their forward dominance.
It is forward dominance that Jenkins feel the Sharks could be looking for both to beat Leinster and to keep his former Bulls teammate, Snyman, quiet.
“We saw how important the physical side of the game was. Especially at the set piece. The lineouts and scrums won the game for the Bulls last weekend,” said the Sharks lock.
“That is a real focus point for us and as a pack we are feeling confident to bring that on Saturday. That is an area where we can attack them and give our backline the opportunity to create some magic with that momentum.
“Our scrums in the past three or four weeks have come a long way. We are feeling really dominant and our lineouts and mauling have been more accurate. We will keep working on it but the forwards are feeling good.
“On RG Snyman, there is no secret to stopping him. Everyone at the Sharks has either played with him or against him at some point in their career. We know what type of threat he poses. All you can do is tackle low and hard.
"There is not much else. We have to play what is in front of us. He is an incredible playmaker for Leinster and a physical player. We are looking forward to that challenge.”
Getting the first part right, achieving forward dominance and not letting Snyman bring his ball carrying skills to the fore with front foot ball to play with, will be a significant part of that battle won. Of course, it could negate the influence of the other big overseas international player in the Leinster mix, All Black centre Jordie Barrett.
When Jenkins speaks about giving the backs the ball to play with, Sharks fans should be hoping that they will do it off a much tighter platform than they did against the Zebre, while the key element that requires improvement is their contestable kicking and aerial game.