If the Hollywoodbets Sharks needed any reminding how tough Cardiff are on their home turf, or should that be plastic, at Cardiff Arms Park, consulting their recent record at their headquarter should bring the message home.
Last year when the DHL Stormers lost their final Vodacom United Rugby Championship league game at the venue, thus surrendering their chance to finish in the top two on the log and secure a home semifinal, they were far from alone.
There was only one home defeat on Cardiff’s URC record last season, and their home run of success was the driving force for their sixth placed finish on the log, their highest since the PRO14 became the URC.
This season they have played just one game at home, but they won that comfortably against Zebre to take their recent URC record at home to nine wins in 10. That’s a 90 per cent home success rate since the start of last season, and they won two out of their three games in the Challenge Cup at Cardiff Arms Park in their 2025/2026 EPCR campaign.
There are some good reasons for that record, and their fast paced 4G surface is a big part of that. As veteran Sharks lock Stephan Lewies pointed out in the buildup to Friday night’s meeting with Cardiff in the Welsh capital, 4G surfaces are difficult for teams that play on them regularly.
“I think most players will say the same thing, that they don’t like 4G surfaces, I haven’t met any who have the opposite view,” said Lewies, who spent seven years playing in England so is well versed on the general international view of 4G pitches.
It was something that Wales and British and Irish Lions wing Louis Rees-Zammit was quite critical about in an interview with the UK media last week, and there is a concern behind the scenes at the discomfort of playing on the surface and the injury risk that is implicit in it.
When the Stormers lost Evan Roos and Marcel Coetzee to injury early in the current season, thus precipitating a bit of a Stormers loose-forward injury crisis, they said it was down to training on the surface ahead of their opening URC game against Connacht.
The Stormers won in Connacht but then came unstuck against Edinburgh at The Hive a week later, although to be fair it was not the surface but their seriously wonky lineout on the night that cost them that game, their only loss of the season so far.
One big thing in the Sharks’ favour heading into the Cardiff game is that their excellent 40-33 win over Lyon at the weekend in the Challenge Cup was achieved on the 4G surface at Stade de Gerland.
“It does make some difference that we have just played and won on a 4G surface so I suppose we are more attuned to what we will be playing on against Cardiff than we might otherwise have been,” said Sharks assistant coach Warren Whiteley.
“It will help us that we played on that surface last week, even though this game will be between two very different teams. It has made us a bit more familiar with it, how the ball rolls etc. It is great to have that experience going into this week.
"They have an Afrikaans coach and we know him well. They showed last year that they deserve to be in the top eight and they have good structures in place.”
Mention of the “Afrikaans coach”, Corniel van Zyl, cues the other big reason for Cardiff’s recent success and something the Sharks’ coaching staff are well aware of. Whiteley is particularly mindful of how good Van Zyl is at plotting around his own field of expertise - the lineout.
“We know Corniel well and we know he has a lot of experience and he is very good at set piece and an astute lineout coach,” said Whiteley.
“He is very smart and we know we are going to be in for a massive set piece battle. That is going to be a big area of the game. They are also tactically a very smart team.
"Corniel will know us intimately and we have worked quite closely with him at times in the past so we know him quite well as a coach.”