Sharks have won both tour matches, but not peacefully secured
The Sharks have won both of their United Rugby Championship matches on tour thus far, but it’s not as if they have peacefully gone about securing that unbeaten record.
They had to withstand a fierce second-half comeback from Zebre in Parma, eventually holding on 42-37, and last weekend they mounted the last-ditch effort, snatching a 20-19 win over the Dragons in Newport. In both cases they were fortunate to win.
And now they come up against Leinster, seemingly in turmoil if you believe some critics, and yet top of the log with three straight wins.
“Leinster have won three out of three and yet everyone says they’re not playing well,” former Scotland stalwart John Barclay said speaking at a media call for the Vodacom United Rugby Championship on Tuesday.
“Their big guns have not come back yet and I’m sure they’ll be happy to have 14 points, they don’t want to play their best game in September. They are too well-versed in how to manage their squad to do that.
“They are super-experienced, they have the best of the best in their squad. They will be hugely disappointed in what happened last season, but you criticise them at your own peril,” Barclay said.
The Sharks, meanwhile, will look to emulate the Bulls, who were also written off when travelling to Dublin to play Leinster in last season’s semifinal, but they burst the multiple champions’ bubble, took away some of their mystique.
“They will have their internationals, but we really back ourselves. We want to play their best team, although it is obviously going to be a massive challenge on Saturday,” eighthman Phepsi Buthelezi said.
“It doesn’t really affect us not having our Springboks because there is so much depth in our squad, any team we put out can go and compete. What the Bulls did certainly gives us a lot of confidence.
“We know what we can achieve, we know our potential and we’re not even close to that yet. We just need to go out and execute our game-plan, we really do believe we have everything we need to not just win this game, but the whole competition,” Buthelezi said.
The Sharks’ grand plan revolves around contestable kicking to manage territory and lineout mauls, but also counter-attacking off turnover ball with mobility, tempo and keeping ball-in-hand. The make-up of their loose trio reflects this, but perhaps what they miss is a real motherbuffer who does the dirty grunt work.
Sharks legend John Smit recognises the selection conundrum.
“I quite like James Venter and Dylan Richardson attacking the ball, making the breakdown a mess and making life difficult for the opposition, but they do lack a ball-carrier, which puts more pressure on Phepsi.
“They will get Siya Kolisi back, but they tend to use him out wide, using his offloads. But the Sharks were not able to get the ball wide enough last season.
“It’s about what sort of game they want to play, and they’ve got Rohan Janse van Rensbirg and Ben Tapuai, two No.12s at centre, so there’s a lot more focus on them carrying,” Smit said.