Sharks wary of what Hendrikse brings to the Lions

When they are at full strength the Cell C Sharks have their own Hendrikse who is a star player, but it will be Springbok scrumhalf Jaden’s brother Jordan who the Durbanites will be most wary of when they visit Johannesburg on Saturday.

The Sharks’ game against the Emirates Lions at Emirates Airlines Park has become a critical must-win clash for them, as their Vodacom United Rugby Championship prospects depend heavily on them being successful during a three-week period that will also see them play Ulster (home) and the DHL Stormers (away).

The Sharks are in eighth position on the URC log, with a game in hand. As it stands, that would be enough for them to make it into the URC playoffs, but not into the qualification zone for next year’s Heineken Champions Cup, which is something of primary importance to the Sharks and their owners/equity partners.

The Welsh Shield winner will automatically advance to the 2023/2024 Champions Cup regardless of final overall log position and both Cardiff and the Ospreys are currently outside the top eight.

That means the Sharks have to finish at least seventh, which will be difficult for them to achieve if they don’t win most of the next three games.

One player who is not being blamed for any problems the Sharks might be experiencing this season is Curwin Bosch, who has been in strong form with his personal game.

He is a player the Lions will certainly be watching out for, particularly on the highveld, where Bosch’s prodigious kicking boot, both at posts and in general play, will be a threat to the hosts.

However, Bosch, while acknowledging he feels he has turned a corner of sorts just by going into restart mode and reinventing himself as if he was learning rugby from scratch, believes his likely opposite number in the Johannesburg game poses as much of a threat and says the Sharks will have to be accurate with their plans to shut Jordan Hendrikse out of the game.

“We know what to expect from the Lions. They like to play an expansive brand at home when they have the altitude factor in their favour,” said Bosch.

“They have some quality players and a guy like (flyhalf) Jordan Hendrikse is someone we have to watch carefully. Jordan’s boot will be a big factor in this game. He kicks the ball a long way. We can’t give him penalties to slot from anywhere on the field. That is going to be crucial. And we also have to close down his time and space so he can’t exploit the backfield.”

FOCUSED PREPARATION

Indeed, the Sharks’ discipline just recently has been horrible. Against the Stormers last time out, they conceded 10 penalties to one in the first half, and they couldn’t have any complaints about that.

Most of them were fairly obvious errors, and it was the man who many consider to arguably be the world’s best referee, Jaco Peyper, who had the whistle.

The Stormers didn’t kick for posts that often, but at altitude there will be opportunity for Hendrikse with any penalty beyond his own 10 metre line.

Bosch is confident though that a week of introspection following the Stormers defeat and then a week of good, focused preparation, he and his teammates are ready to put the record straight with a good bounce back performance from the heavy defeat to the competition champions.

“That performance was way below our standards, especially given that we were playing at home,” said the flyhalf.

“We had an in-depth review of what went wrong and on the day nothing went our way. We made mistakes we would not usually make and a good team like the Stormers will punish you for those mistakes.

“We just could not get going because of those errors and our discipline also let us down. We were always on the back foot because of giving away penalties and so it was very hard to get back into the game.”

The Stormers went ahead by nearly 20 points within the opening quarter of the game in Durban so so it goes without saying that the Sharks are looking for a strong start against the Lions.

“Starting well is very important for us. We want to get on to the park and start fast, well, and with good execution of our game plan. We are keen to rectify things this weekend and training has gone very well. After doing our review of the Stormers game, we went away and tried to switch off a bit and we came back refreshed and energised.

“We know what we are capable of and we are going to hit the ground running,” he added.