Ken Borland

Even though the British and Irish Lions are a ruthless, top-class outfit that inflicted plenty of pain on them in midweek, Sharks coach Sean Everitt said on Friday that his team is delighted to get a second chance against them when they meet in a hastily-arranged rematch at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

With the Bulls having to postpone their scheduled match against the tourists on Saturday due to Covid cases in their squad, and the Sharks having been in a bio-bubble in Johannesburg since last Friday, the KwaZulu-Natalians have agreed to step up again and ensure the Lions don’t miss out on valuable game-time before their Test series against the Springboks.

Having been hammered 54-7 at Ellis Park, the Sharks are hopeful of putting on a better show, with Everitt naming a vastly-changed side thanks to them having 36 players up on the Highveld due to Covid precautions.

“There’s massive excitement in the team, we’ve only been playing against South African teams so it’s great to have fresh opposition, even though they are a world-class outfit. It’s an opportunity for us to learn from our mistakes and rectify those. When we did the review, we saw the opportunities we created, but also the errors and soft moments that ruined those.

“It was surprising to see how we put the Lions through their paces, normally it’s all doom and gloom when you take a 54-7 hiding, but there were actually lots of positives. I think we have a shot at redemption but we have to tidy up and cut down on the errors when we were in good positions. They were mostly unforced errors and a hard pill to swallow when they happen on the Lions’ tryline,” Everitt said.

Captain Phepsi Buthelezi retains his place at eighthman and he and scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse were two of the few players to show some fire in the first match against the Lions; together with the experienced Lionel Cronje, who has replaced the misfiring Curwin Bosch at flyhalf, they will provide the backbone of the Sharks’ effort.

The Sharks will certainly need strength of character to bounce back from their Ellis Park mauling, but they also need to lift their intensity.

“The Lions tour has taught us a lot, it has showed us where we are in terms of conditioning and we need to get our ball-in-play time higher to at least 35 minutes, that’s what it takes to withstand the intensity of a team like the Lions. It make sense to give everyone an opportunity to have a taste of that, it will be a great learning experience of international rugby.

“You can see the intensity of the Lions, but until you’ve experienced it on the field and tried to match it, you don’t really understand it. But it will make us better players to see how an international team punishes your mistakes. But we did manage to keep the ball through numerous phases, we had two passages of close to three minutes, we must just not turn over the ball,” Everitt said.

Sharks: Anthony Volmink, Marnus Potgieter, Werner Kok, Murray Koster, Thaakir Abrahams, Lionel Cronje, Jaden Hendrikse, Phepsi Buthelezi (c), Mpilo Gumede, Dylan Richardson, Reniel Hugo, Le Roux Roets, Wiehahn Herbst, Kerron van Vuuren, Ntuthuko Mchunu. Bench – Dan Jooste, Mzamo Majola, Khutha Mchunu, Thembelani Bholi, Juandre Labuschagne, Cameron Wright, Boeta Chamberlain, Jeremy Ward.

The British and Irish Lions will be coming to Loftus Versfeld after all and they have invited the Sharks to once again be their opposition in a hastily-arranged match that will take place on Saturday.

The Lions were originally scheduled to play the Bulls in Pretoria on Saturday, but that game has been postponed due to positive Covid tests in the Bulls camp.

But just as the Springboks, who have had their second Test against Georgia cancelled, are concerned about lack of game time ahead of the Test series against the Lions, so too are the tourists desperate not to miss out on any matches on their roster. Coach Warren Gatland would have carefully planned out giving his whole squad certain opportunities ahead of the first match against South Africa on July 24, and games not being played would throw all of that out of kilter.

The Sharks, who were hammered 54-7 by the Lions at Ellis Park on Wednesday night, were still in Gauteng on Thursday and have agreed to stay on the Highveld and play the tourists again. This will necessitate the postponement of their scheduled Currie Cup match on Saturday, against the Gauteng Lions at Kings Park, and SA Rugby are expected to communicate these details later on Thursday.

There had been speculation that the European Lions would want to get down to Cape Town, where they are meant to play SA A on Wednesday, as soon as possible to escape the epicentre of Covid in Gauteng. But their desperation to not lose out on game time has won the day.

And the Sharks have 36 players in Johannesburg, ready and willing to play. And hopefully second time around they will be better up to speed and able to provide more stern competition for the Lions.

Serviced by a steady flow of quick ball, British and Irish Lions fullback Josh Adams and wing Duhan van der Merwe both scored hat-tricks as the tourists hammered the Sharks 54-7 at Ellis Park on Wednesday night.

The Covid crisis surrounding this series meant the Lions had to make eight late changes to their originally announced team and they had just one backline reserve on the bench. It only seemed to fuel them to higher levels of excellence.

Playing with tremendous skill and tempo, the Lions were ruthless and clinical in scoring eight tries. Their aggressive defence took away much of the time and space the Sharks are used to normally and the tourists only conceded a single try.

The prolific Adams, who has now scored eight tries in three appearances for the Lions, and Van der Merwe both scored in the opening 10 minutes to immediately settle the tourists and banish all thoughts from their minds of the tremendous disruption they have suffered over the last 24 hours.

With Owen Farrell, one of the late changes at flyhalf, producing a tactical masterclass, the Lions scored two more tries before halftime to lead 26-0 at the break.

The Sharks scored first in the second half, flank James Venter rounding off a lovely try that featured slick work down the right touchline by Jeremy Ward, Werner Kok and Manie Libbok.

But then they ruined their promising moments with basic errors and soft moments, succumbing to the pressure exerted on them by a top-quality international side. The Lions scored four more tries, the last when they deliberately played with just 14 men. From a powerful scrum, Adams had space aplenty to complete is hat-trick.

It is highly unlikely that Sharks coach Sean Everitt sleeps well tonight. With their first foray into Europe a couple of months away, the Sharks were way off the pace. Clearly, playing against sluggish South African teams has got them into bad habits and a false sense of security.

Scorers

Sharks – Try: James Venter. Conversion: Curwin Bosch.

British & Irish Lions – Tries: Josh Adams (3), Duhan van der Merwe (3), Bundee Aki, Louis Rees-Zammit. Conversions – Owen Farrell (3), Finn Russell (4).

Despite the daunting task ahead of them and the fact that they are playing away from their Kings Park haven, coach Sean Everitt said the Sharks are as excited as puppies about taking on the British and Irish Lions at Ellis Park on Wednesday night.

“We spoke about the opportunity to make history and if we win we will forever be in the history books as the first Sharks or Natal team to beat the British and Irish Lions. The guys are excited and have watched a lot of Northern Hemisphere rugby so they know the players and there are no false pretences of the challenge in front of us. But if we can stop their momentum and power game then we are in with a chance.

“Unfortunately we can’t play in Durban, but we’ve been in Johannesburg since Friday so our acclimatisation will be spot-on and we’ve generally done pretty well up here, we feel comfortable playing on the Highveld. Personally I remember watching the 1974 Lions playing against Border, so I have a lot of respect for the team and I’m just so glad that the game is going ahead,” Everitt said.

The Lions, meanwhile, have added a pacy, marauding loose trio to their mix for the meeting with the Sharks, selecting Tom Curry, Josh Navidi and Sam Simmonds.

Behind a top-class tight five, they will certainly have plenty of opportunity to fulfil coach Warren Gatland’s mandate to “express yourselves”.

A hamstring strain to Robbie Henshaw, who added plenty of muscle to the Lions’ midfield against Japan, has given a chance in the outside centre berth to Elliot Daly, who has mostly been a wing or fullback under England coach Eddie Jones.

Everitt knows that the only way to counter the individual star quality in the Lions team is through a concerted team effort; the sum of the Sharks’ performance must be greater than its parts.

“The focus is always on team first and if anyone goes off programme we will pay the consequences. We need all 23 players on match day to reach our peak performance and I don’t think anyone will go off-programme because we all know we need a massive team performance and not playing as individuals.

“We have to manage the ball well in our own half and not just throw the ball around and expect things to happen. They have three very good loose forwards and good lineout jumpers and we need to survive at the set-pieces and then look after the ball when we have it and then make sure we are playing in the right areas,” Everitt said.