THEY'VE looked in the mirror, had the tough conversations, put in the hard work and now it’s time to measure the output.
It’s all business down at Kings Park, where the Sharks are determined to improve on last year’s 10th-place finish in the United Rugby Championship (URC). The only South African team not to make the play-offs, the Sharks not only had a rebrand in the off-season, but they worked hard to change the future.
And following a bright start in their first match of the new campaign – a 41-24 win over Welsh visitors Ospreys at the weekend – they now face defending champions Leinster at the Shark Tank this Saturday.
What this game can do for the confidence in the Sharks camp is not lost on co-captain Phepsi Buthelezi.
“This week is a very important one for us,” said the loose forward at a virtual press conference from Durban yesterday.
“It’s important to show ourselves how far we’ve come as a group. We’ve had a tough pre-season, we’ve had hard and honest conversations, we know exactly where we want to go, so this week presents us with an opportunity to measure ourselves against the defending champs.”
Leinster head to Durban on the back of a 27-26 defeat to the Lions at Ellis Park. But they are expected to bounce back stronger this weekend, and therefore, Buthelezi knows the Sharks can’t rest on their laurels after the win over Ospreys.
“It was a really positive start for us (against Ospreys); it was rewarding for the group. We really worked hard during our pre-season and to be able to get off the mark the way we did was really positive,” he said.
“We also had a good look at our performance and we also felt that we could have done better in certain moments of the game, but I think overall it was a really positive start and everyone’s happy.”
While it was a positive experience for the Sharks, they leaked four tries.
Defence coach Joey Mongalo, though, believes the defence structure is in place, and that it was just one or two soft moments that led to them leaking those tries.
“As a defence coach, a team scoring one try against you, it hurts. So you can imagine how four tries hurt. But the review was that the system was in place, we had people in place and we had four soft moments,” explained Mongalo.
Still, the Sharks scored five tries – two of them coming via youngster Luan Giliomee.
Asked about their attacking game and the exciting backline combining with the loose forwards to find gaps at will against Ospreys, Buthelezi said: “It’s part of the game we’ve worked hard on.
“With (attack coach) Scottie (Mathie) coming back to Durban, the group has responded well to him. It’s something we are going to keep working on. As a loose forward, it’s always nice to get involved with the ball and score some amazing tries. That was really positive and something we will keep working on.”