Ken Borland

‘Matching the opposition’s physicality’ is a recurring riff in rugby these days, and Sharks coach Sean Everitt spoke of little else when assessing the strengths of the Dragons team they come up against in their United Rugby Championship match in Newport on Saturday.

The Sharks themselves do not own the most physically intimidating side, putting greater value on mobility, tempo and expansiveness, but they have produced the grunt at times.

The Dragons, meanwhile, are under new management with Dai Flanagan moving from Scarlets in June to take over as head coach. It is believed director of rugby Dean Ryan is being moved on, after he gave the players a public earful following their lacklustre 44-6 loss to Edinburgh on the opening weekend of URC action.

The squad responded with a 23-17 win over Munster, a major upset, the first time they have beaten the Irish giants since 2015, and their first win at home at Rodney Parade in 18 months.

“The Dragons have a new head coach and they are a very different kettle of fish at home,” Everitt said. “Last week they dominated Munster physically, in the mauls, collisions and set-pieces, they were vastly improved in those areas.

“So obviously we will need to be dominant from a physicality point of view. The Dragons are a different team from when we beat them 51-3 in April. We were fortunate to be at home then.

“It was difficult for them in Durban at that time of year and it’s going to be a different challenge for us in Newport. They pride themselves on their physicality and the collisions.

“They are physical by nature and we are going to have to be up for it physically,” Everitt reiterated.

But whenever the Dragons have come up against South African opposition – probably the measure for physicality in the URC – it has been a chronicle of disappointment for the Welshmen.

They lost all four matches they played against South African teams last season, and, notwithstanding their brilliant result against Munster, which ended a six-game losing run, they have not won successive URC games since April 2021.

Kick-off: 8.35pm.

The Sharks have turned down the option to play a more ‘upmarket’ team and include their returning Springboks in their United Rugby Championship visit to Newport to take on the Dragons on Saturday, instead deciding to leave them in Durban until after their tour is over.

While the Bulls and Stormers are fielding some of the Springboks who were involved in the Rugby Championship, Sharks coach Sean Everitt has made just two injury-enforced changes to the team that opened their campaign with a narrow (in the end) win over Zebre in Parma.

Lock Gerbrandt Grobler injured his bicep in training this week and will be replaced by new signing Justin Basson, with Hyron Andrews moving on to the bench.

And replacement flyhalf Fred Zeilinga has also returned home injured, with Anthony Volmink replacing him amongst the substitutes.

“The Springboks have been given a week off and will integrate themselves back into training next week in Durban,” Everitt said on Thursday. “If we need to call in some of them due to injuries for next week against Leinster, then we will.

“But I would prefer them to get up to date with what we were doing in pre-season and what we have implemented since then. It’s a bit different for us because of the number of Springboks we have.

“Fortunately they are all guys who prepare well. But they did miss part of pre-season and they need to get up to speed. They’re all quality players and we will need to introduce them for a couple of games in October.

“But for now we are leaving them in Durban to prepare for the clash with Glasgow back at home on October 15,” Everitt explained.

Having upset Munster in Newport last weekend, the Dragons are shopping for their second successive home win, having begun the season with a fearful 44-6 hammering away to Edinburgh.

What the Sharks want is a repeat of their first 40 minutes against Zebre last weekend, when they were impressively efficient in garnering a 28-3 lead. They lost focus in the second half though, and had to hang on desperately for a 42-37 triumph.

“The first half was the best rugby we’ve played for a long time and I was very happy with that,” Everitt said. “But in the second half we allowed them to get momentum.

“Zebre and the Dragons are both dangerous out wide and we struggled with our width in defence and allowed them quick ball at the breakdowns.

“Plus we never stuck to our kicking plan. So really we put ourselves under the pump. Having conceded only three penalties in the first half, not many at all, we then gave away seven in the second half when we were feeling the pressure. But those things are all fixable,” Everitt said.

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

Lifelong Bulls fans will have seen some brilliant backlines in their lives, but not many will be more exciting than the unit coach Jake White announced on Thursday for their United Rugby Championship match against Connacht at Loftus Versfeld on Friday.

Five Springboks, four of them who are part of the national team’s current plans, have been named. New sensations Kurt-Lee Arendse (fullback) and Canan Moodie (right wing) will have a slightly more experienced international in Sbu Nkosi for company in a class back three.

Johan Goosen, who was eased back into action last weekend at fullback, returns as the starting flyhalf for the first time since injuring his knee 11 months ago, and there will be great interest in how he performs given how other experienced No.10s in the country seem to be falling by the wayside.

And then to round it all off, there is the veteran, evergreen Cornal Hendricks at outside centre. And two other backline Springboks on the bench in scrumhalf Embrose Papier and utility back Lionel Mapoe.

Even White called it “an incredible backline we’ve been able to put together”.

“But it’s their first time together as a combination and I look forward to seeing how quick it is before they click. They are all very talented.

“They all like to keep ball in hand, and in training we see so many line-breaks and so many supporting lines. So hopefully we can keep ball-in-hand on Friday evening.

“But rugby is also about clever kicking and they are all very clever rugby players. A guy like Canan can play 100 Tests for South Africa and people are now seeing what I see in him.

“And then you have a guy like David Kriel at inside centre who sums up what we’re about at the Bulls – you need to be adaptable. He brings incredible work ethic and unbelievable skills and rugby intelligence,” White said.

Although there has been a gorge between Connacht’s score and that of their opponents in their first two URC matches – Ulster beating them 36-10 and the Stormers 38-15 – White says they are a team that stays in the game.

“Connacht never go away and in both matches, with 20 minutes left the result could have gone either team’s way. So we must not think that it’s going to just happen for us.

“They beat us 34-7 last season, which was the biggest score against us. So we know we must play well otherwise we’ll get another hiding.

“They are very direct and well-coached, a typical Irish team that fights till the end. They’re good with the ball and defensively. They were not easy games for either the Stormers or Ulster.

“Connacht play a style of rugby that is very difficult to contain. Against the Stormers they were still in the game until they lost Bundee Aki to a red card, they were just one score away,” White said.

Bulls team: Kurt-Lee Arendse; Canan Moodie; Cornal Hendricks; David Kriel; Sbu Nkosi; Johan Goosen; Zak Burger; Elrigh Louw; Marco van Staden; Marcel Coetzee; Ruan Nortje; Walt Steenkamp; Francois Klopper; Johan Grobbelaar; Gerhard Steenekamp. Substitutes – Jan-Hendrik Wessels; Simphiwe Matanzima; Mornay Smith; Janko Swanepoel; Reinhardt Ludwig; Embrose Papier; Chris Smith; Lionel Mapoe.

Kickoff: 6.30pm.

The Sharks produced a first 40 minutes that must rank amongst their best overseas in the United Rugby Championship, but then a messy second half left them with a most uncomfortable finish to the game as they held on for a 42-37 win against Zebre in Parma.

Having led 28-3 as the first half came to a close, the Sharks scraped home in the end, but they were lucky because Zebre had a long-range 77^th-minute try, that could have given them a 41-39 lead, disallowed because Werner Kok had been taken out while chasing a kick. Boeta Chamberlain instead kicked a penalty to give the visitors a crucial 42-34 lead.

“Obviously we’re very happy with the win, we did really well to get five points away from home in our first outing,” Sharks coach Sean Everitt said. “The first 40 was really pleasing. We’ll take a lot of positives out of that, we played some fantastic rugby.

“We knew what happened to Leinster in the second half last week [Zebre fought back from 28-10 at halftime to only lose 33-29], but we didn’t learn the lesson.

“We went off plan in terms of our execution, our kicking game and our defence, and we conceded seven penalties in the second half, which is unacceptable.

“But those things are all fixable and we are happy to get off to a winning start. But we know there’s lots to work on,” Everitt said.

Better game-management will be one of the takeaways from the game as Zebre were able to recover from what seemed a lost cause in the first half and completely switch the momentum of the match. Everitt will want to know why his team allowed themselves to be so thoroughly put on the back foot. Zebre gained plenty of go-forward from their maul, and the Sharks were also vulnerable out wide. They also lost crucial possession from the restarts, allowing Zebre to level out the one-sided territory (64%) and possession (65%) stats from the first half.