Ken Borland

Irish powerhouses Leinster, especially at home, thrive on quick ball and phase-after-phase of ball-in-hand attack, but the Sharks will be looking to take that away from them in their United Rugby Championship clash in Dublin on Saturday night.

James Venter and Dylan Richardson, both traditionally openside flanks, will continue to play in tandem in a mobile loose trio that sees Springbok Sikhumbuzo Notshe return as starting eighthman and the hardworking Phepsi Buthelezi on the bench.

And the more Leinster recycle the ball through rucks, the more they will bring Venter and Richardson, both expert ball-stealers, into play.

“We know that Leinster rely on lightning-quick ball at the breakdown and we need to slow that down,” Sharks coach Sean Everitt said on Friday. “But they do concede turnovers, and if we defend well then that could be a source of attacking possession for us.

“Leinster have an all-round game, a good kicking game forces you to play in the wrong areas and then their attack is really dangerous, they enjoy keeping ball-in-hand.

“But hopefully we can wear them down, get on top at the breakdowns and then get behind them. The amount of work that Dylan and James gets through stands us in good stead.

“Dylan is an all-round loose forward, he can play on the blindside too because he is physical, his carries are very good and he gets a lot of them. He’s good on the ground too,” Everitt said.

The Sharks have won both of their 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.

Everitt knows how steep the challenge is away to Leinster and he knows they need their all-round game to click.

“It’s a massive game for us to see where we’re at because we’re going to have a number of games without our Springboks. We’re under no false illusions, but teams have beaten Leinster and we beat them in Durban last season.

“We have to improve the areas that have let us down the last two weeks. Our attack was brilliant in the first game, but our defence let us down in the second half. Last weekend our defence was good but the attack was poor.

“So we need to get consistency in both of those areas. It’s going to be a great challenge because Leinster weren’t the top side in Europe for five years for nothing,” Everitt said.

Sharks team – Aphelele Fassi, Werner Kok, Rohan Janse van Rensburg, Ben Tapuai, Thaakir Abrahams, Boeta Chamberlain, Grant Williams, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Dylan Richardson, James Venter, Hyron Andrews, Justin Basson, Thomas du Toit (c), Kerron van Vuuren, Ntuthuko Mchunu. Bench: Dan Jooste, Dian Bleuler, Carlu Sadie, Reniel Hugo, Phepsi Buthelezi, Cameron Wright, Nevaldo Fleurs, Marnus Potgieter.

Kickoff – 6.05pm.

Bulls coach Jake White was quick to point out the relative inexperience of his side compared to Edinburgh and how impressed he was that they managed to pull a 33-31 victory out of the fire in their United Rugby Championship match at Loftus Versfeld, while acknowledging that they are still not where they want to be in terms of performance.

Edinburgh, disrupted by the loss of flyhalf Blair Kinghorn due to a stomach bug on the day of the game, and then his replacement Jaco van der Walt after 15 minutes, as well as substitute back Chris Dean injuring himself in the warm-up, made an error-strewn start to the game that included their captain Grant Gilchrist being yellow-carded.

The Bulls capitalised superbly and raced into a 15-0 lead, but Edinburgh were quick to show their quality and strike back once they had settled. They trailed by just one point at halftime and then led 31-30 going into the last 10 minutes.

Morne Steyn would be the hero for the Bulls with a tricky 78^th-minute penalty, although Edinburgh fullback Henry Immelman missed a long-range effort after the final hooter.

“The margins are very small in this competition and that last kick was worth three points on the log,” a relieved White said. “You can’t underestimate how tough Edinburgh are.

“We need to be mindful that in their pack, they have players with more Test caps than we have URC caps. We have one of the youngest teams in the URC.

“We got ourselves 15-0 up, scoring relatively easily, and they’re only human, they maybe thought it would just happen on its own. But you’ve got to work very hard.

“We are far from where we need to be, but to show that composure, to not just accept that maybe it wasn’t our day, that’s a massive confidence boost. I’m very glad we managed to do enough to win,” White said.

The Bulls car ran beautifully smoothly at times, but at other times it spluttered along, leading to a dingdong match that was like a rush-hour taxi ride through central Joburg.

“At times we were outstanding, we would defend for three or four sets and then suddenly miss a tackle,” White admitted. “Or we would keep ball for phase-after-phase, and then give a poor pass or get our timing wrong.

“But we are a young team and we mustn’t get ahead of ourselves. It will do them good to learn and experience this pressure,” White said.

Bulls coach Gert Smal was quick to deflect a question over how it is going to feel for him to return to Cape Town and take on arch-rivals Western Province, a team with whom he enjoyed considerable success as a player, coach and director of rugby, in their Currie Cup match on Wednesday night.

But it will be a poignant moment for the former Springbok loose forward and World Cup winning assistant coach to Jake White. In answering the question, Smal did give an insight into how quickly allegiances can change in the world of professional rugby.

“Ja, it’s funny. In the past week-and-a-half I’ve been having one-on-ones with the players and some of them are guys I contracted at Western Province and now they are at the Bulls,” Smal, who was director of rugby at Newlands from 2014 to 2018, said. He coached the Western Province and Stormers teams between 2000 and 2005.

“There are others here who I was looking at, wanting to bring them to Western Province. But it’s always nice to see talent growing, on both sides. Western Province played well too over the weekend.

“I’m looking forward to the contest, I’m really excited to see how it pans out. It’s a new, big match for us and it’s important we put the game together that we want to see on the park,” Smal said.

And Smal is not the only Springbok who will be visiting Cape Town with the Bulls. He has been able to name fellow internationals Bismarck du Plessis, Marcell Coetzee, Morne Steyn and Lionel Mapoe in his side.

Smal was cagey when it came to the question of whether they are just on loan to him until the United Rugby Championship gets back into full swing.

“It’s a new dynamic, running with two teams and it’s a nice challenge to get the balance right. It’s important for some guys to get some game-time and it’s nice to have them with us at the moment.

“They bring great experience and the youngsters around them are getting experience, in terms of intellectual property and leadership, from the senior players.

“It’s about managing the squad, giving everyone some game-time. The beauty of us being one squad is that all the players feel they are part of it, in with a shout.

“Obviously our big names in the team are going to motivate Western Province quite heavily. The challenge for us is to keep our concentration and processes going for 80 minutes,” Smal said.

Bulls team:James Verity-Amm, Canan Moodie, Lionel Mapoe, Harold Vorster, Sibongile Novuka, Morne Steyn, Marco Jansen van Vuren, Muller Uys, Cyle Brink, Marcell Coetzee, Janko Swanepoel, Sintu Manjezi, Robert Hunt, Bismarck du Plessis, Simphiwe Matanzima. Replacements– Schalk Erasmus, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Sebastian Lombard, Reinardt Ludwig, WJ Steenkamp, Keagan Johannes, FC du Plessis, Stedman Gans.

Keegan Petersen had the ball whizzing past his ears and edges of his bat enough times on Tuesday to know just how tough it is going to be for the South African batsmen to take on the Indian attack in the second innings of the second Test at the Wanderers, which means a quick end to the tourists’ innings on Wednesday will be crucial.

Petersen top-scored for the Proteas with a determined but positive 62 in their innings of 229 which gave them just a 27-run lead. India had reached 85/2 at stumps to go into the third day 58 runs ahead.

“It’s a tough pitch and batting is definitely not going to get easier. And we’re up against a top-quality attack that keeps you on your toes,” Petersen said after his maiden Test half-century in his sixth innings.

“It’s a pitch which you’re never really in on and the session this morning was the toughest. The Indian seamers came out guns blazing and it was a very challenging two hours.

“They were spot-on with both their execution and their strategies, and the pitch is a bit tricky too. We haven’t yet put a number to what we’d like to chase, but anything under 200 I think we can get.

“But it’s a difficult bowling attack to come up against and we’ll have to get stuck in again. I’m not sure what the right way to bat is, the attacking option worked out for a couple of guys,” Petersen said.

The 28-year-old from Paarl has been deposited in the deep end at No.3 in his brief Test career which began in the West Indies last June and he once again came to the crease at the Wanderers inside the first five overs, as he has done in all of his Proteas innings thus far.

While there has been talk of him dropping down the order so a more experienced batsman can come in first drop, Petersen brushed that off on Tuesday by saying he will bat “wherever”.

Clearly a mentally tough individual, he was more upset that he did not go on to a bigger score, having done so much hard work in spending nearly three hours at the crease.

“I’m happy but I wish I had done more,” Petersen said. “I wish I had kicked on and that is the one department we need to improve on as a batting unit.

“You can’t be overly aggressive, but you just try and pounce on the bad ball when it comes. But there weren’t many of those.

“I’m completely confident that I will get to the milestone of a Test century, I thought today was going to be the day. It was not to be, but we will get there,” said the KZN Dolphins batsman whose solid technique and impressive strokeplaying ability was laid down in his childhood years by father Dirkie, his only real coach growing up.