The pressure is on the Cell C Sharks after a few mediocre performances but they believe they have what coach Sean Everitt refers to as a massive opportunity to make a statement and set the record straight about their ability this weekend.
The Sharks go to Loftus to play the Vodacom Bulls in a crucial United Rugby Championship derby, having not won in Pretoria since they first visited there under Everitt’s coaching for a Currie Cup game in 2019. Even then, that win was a rare event, and you must go back to 2011 to when last the Durban team won at Loftus at franchise level.
While that might appear to be the reason for the Sharks to be intimidated, Everitt says they are taking on the opposite attitude. For a win at Loftus, being such a rare event, would be a celebrated event that would erase much of the negativity that has closed in around the Sharks (in terms of public perception) over the past two weeks.
The Sharks did beat the Bulls quite comfortably in the first-round game at Hollywoodbets Kings Park in December, but a win at Loftus, the venue of Natal rugby’s biggest ever statement of intent sounded out by Craig Jamieson’s raiders on a balmy October afternoon in 1990, will be a step up from that.
“This is a massive opportunity for us and what you must remember about that win against the Bulls in Durban was that they were missing key personnel in the front row,” said Everitt after naming a starting team with four changes from the side that lost 20-10 to the DHL Stormers in Cape Town.
“You have to be realistic. I am not taking anything away from our boys, who played really well that night, and our set-piece functioned really well and laid the foundation for a good win, but this is a different Bulls team. When it comes to playing on the highveld, we also put the Lions away when we went to Johannesburg three weeks ago and that gives us confidence.”
DRAWING CONFIDENCE FROM 2020 FINAL
They’ve lost a few times in Pretoria since then, but Everitt says his team is also still drawing confidence from the narrow loss in the 2020 Currie Cup final in Pretoria.
The Bulls placed a sign over the tunnel onto the field ahead of that game saying that altitude matters, but Everitt agrees with Stormers coach John Dobson that the altitude is starting to matter a lot less for coastal teams visiting Gauteng.
“Altitude is a mental thing. It gave us the world of confidence 12 months ago when we went up there for the Currie Cup final and played 100 minutes at altitude (the game went to extra time). In the end, it was just some set-piece mistakes near the end that cost us and maybe some goalkicking,” said the Sharks coach.
“We were very competitive in that game and maybe should have won it at 80 minutes had we been more accurate in our execution,” added Everitt.
Looking back at the travails of the last two weeks, where the Sharks were held to a draw by the Stormers in Durban and then well beaten in Cape Town, Everitt suggested that it was just a matter of the team needing to become more cohesive as the combinations play together more often.
“What people need to understand is that we work closely with the guys and one of the things we need is cohesion and that doesn’t happen overnight. Last week we let ourselves down by not sticking to the plan. Sometimes things just don’t go well and we also have to give credit to Dobbo (Dobson) and the Stormers as they were really good against us in Cape Town.
“Like when the Bulls beat the Springboks last year, things can happen against star-studded teams. You don’t just learn from winning, you also learn from winning and we felt we learned a lot about ourselves last week.”
AM RETURNS TO WHERE HE IS MORE COMFORTABLE DEFENSIVELY
The key change to the Sharks team for Saturday’s game is Lukhanyo Am’s return to outside centre, with Marius Louw coming in at No 12 to enable the skipper to move to the position where he is more comfortable defending.
“Marius has been good whenever he has worn the Sharks jersey so it is not like we are going full circle in returning to him,” said Everitt.
“There were things we wanted to try with Am at 12 last week, but Marius deserves the opportunity as he played two good Currie Cup games at home.”
Former Wallaby centre Ben Tapuai was the inside centre when this sequence of derby matches started and the good news for the Sharks is that he is likely to be out for just a few weeks with the leg injury that ruled him out of the Cape Town trip and now the game at Loftus instead of the several months first feared.
The other changes both come in the pack, with Henco Venter coming in for Jeandre Labuschagne, the only injury-enforced change.
Labuschagne has an AC joint injury. Ruben van Heerden will play from the bench this week with Gerbrandt Grobler starting in a quest to bring renewed energy to the pack after three tough and physical derby matches.
