After injuring himself early in the season, the ever-popular local crowd favourite Patrick Lambie returned to the field of play against the Hurricanes to a rousing welcome, delivering a solid performance in his first match in months.
“It was really nice, it was great being back out there in the middle and a lovely game to be involved in as far as the Cell C Sharks performance goes,” he admits on the eve of his team’s departure to Argentina ahead of their return leg match against the Jaguares this Saturday evening.
In his absence, Garth April took up the reins of the flyhalf job and by Lambie’s reckoning (which echoes the general public), the youngster did a fantastic job.
“Garth has been outstanding, he’s had some great performances. He’s developed a lot of confidence around his team-mates and I hope he has a bright future here at the Cell C Sharks.”
Keeping himself sharp and making sure he was ready come his first opportunity to play after a fairly lengthy spell on the sidelines while he recovered from injury was important. While it may not have seemed like it at the time, he admits that he probably was a bit rusty to begin with although it wasn’t like he stepped out of a hospital bed directly onto the field.
“Well, I felt rusty – that was my feeling – but I was quite fortunate in that my rehab went quite smoothly, there wasn’t all that much I couldn’t do, apart from contact. I’ve been kicking, running and doing ball skills for six to eight weeks already.”
The ‘complete performance’, or balance between attack and defence, has been bandied about a fair amount in the last few days since the Cell C Sharks outstanding performance against the Hurricanes at Growthpoint KINGS PARK and Lambie explains that it’s not so much two distinct elements, but rather making sure that the good in one aspect evolves into the good in the other.
“One of the focus points of the last couple of weeks has been rewarding ourselves for the good defence we’ve shown. We created turnovers but didn’t capitalise, so when we did absorb all the pressure and force the opposition into mistakes, we hadn’t punished them.
“But I thought we did that extremely well last weekend and that made a big difference, being able to turn turnover ball into attack, and hold onto the ball.”
The Jaguares pose a significant threat this weekend, playing at home and high on confidence following their 73-27 victory over the Southern Kings at the end of April, a threat Lambie is well aware of.
“They’ve had a tough start to Super Rugby and a number of narrow losses, but they’re coming off a very strong performance against the Kings. And they’ve just had a bye week, so they’ll be fresh. We’ll be playing in a very intimidating environment, they will be up for the challenge with a point to prove, especially as we’re both in the same pool.
“They’re very much a ball in hand style of team, good skills and lots of passing and catching, with a number of steppers in their backline, so like the earlier match in Durban, it’s going to have to be a strong defensive performance from us.
“We’re expecting a high tempo, very physical encounter.”
The post Back in Action appeared first on Sharks Rugby.
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