CURRIE CUP QUALIFYING ACTION – Featured Durban Blog

This Saturday, the Cell C Sharks XV play Namibia in a Currie Cup Qualifier at King Zwelithini Stadium in Umlazi.  Kick-off is at 15h00.

Despite a loss to Border last Friday in a pulsating encounter, this young team showed a lot of character and fight to come back from a 19 point deficit (22-3) at half-time.  Unfortunately a late try by the hosts, saw the Cell C Sharks go down by 37 – 32.

This young group certainly do not lack talent or energy and it’s only a matter of time before they click.  Head Coach, Michael Horak will be hoping that their plan comes together this weekend and will be calling for an 80-minute performance from his young chargers.

Horak has made a few changes to the team that played Border, three of which have been necessitated by injuries to Wandile Mjekevu,  Inny-Christian Radebe and Andrew du Plessis.  Their respective starting spots have been occupied by the highly talented trio of Marius Louw, Tristan Tedder and Kerron van Vuuren.

Amongst the loose trio, Johan du Toit is back from injury and returns to the starting line-up at No 7.

Curwin Bosch has returned from the SA U/20 camp to provide cover on the bench together with Sibusiso Nkosi and John Meyer, who are new editions to the team that played last week.

The Cell C Sharks XV will be looking to secure their first win of the competition, ahead of their bye next week.

Cell C Sharks XV

The Cell C Sharks will be looking for an accurate, determined performance  in their Vodacom Super Rugby clash with the 2015 champions, the Highlanders, when the sides meet in Dunedin on Friday morning.

But for a late try to the Blues, the Cell C Sharks could have won the match last week and they are aware of just how close they are to putting in a performance that guarantees victory.

While it is not going to be easy against the champs, they know what is needed and have identified the areas that they will look to be more clinical in.

“It’s been tricky with the short turnaround because we have fewer training days, but the things that went wrong for us [against the Blues] are things we believe we can fix,” explained Director of Rugby Gary Gold from the team’s base.

“We missed a couple of critical lineouts and there were some opportunities on attack where we didn’t look after the ball well enough, and when you’re playing a team of the Highlanders’ calibre, if you don’t look after the ball or turn it over, they are a team that will hurt you.”

Gold admitted that the focus is on making sure that what they do with the ball brings reward.

“Our decision-making is going to be critically important; when we do receive the ball, we need to capitalise on that. It’s important that we manage the possession we get, and hopefully hold on to the ball for quite a few phases.”

And holding on to the ball means their attack needs to not only function, but for long periods of time. And being on attack brings excited energy. Defending saps that energy and Gold admitted that more balance is on the cards.

“We can’t defend for 80 minutes, we have to take our opportunities, and we have to ask questions of them. We want to start well and put pressure on them to chase the game, we want to take them out of their comfort zone because they’re not used to chasing the game. Strategically, it’s really important to start well against the Kiwi teams.”

Eighthman Philip van der Walt added that putting in a performance to be proud of is on the check list of what they want to deliver on Friday.

“We’re hungry, we want to prove ourselves because we all feel that we haven’t played as well as we can, especially the last couple of games,” he said. “So we’re looking to really improve our performances and we’re up for this match.”

Looking at their opponents, he explained that as in any game, it’s a double-edged sword when preparing. Obviously it’s important to analyse the opposition, but equally important to make sure your own team is ready to deliver.

“The Highlanders are a good team, current champions and we expect the same from them as last year. We respect them but we’re focussing on what we need to do, on our game plan and making sure we don’t make unnecessary errors.

“We’ve worked hard on our scrums and lineouts this week, it’s important for us to have the set-piece working.

“We’re backing ourselves and if we play well, this is a game we could win.”

Gold added that he was expecting a kicking game from the Highlanders, pointing out that, “They’re pretty up there as a team that kicks the most in the competition, although they’re not one dimensional with it at all. So the ball we get might not be easy to play with at all because it might be a contestable kick or deep in our territory.

“We must remain positive about our approach. We know how hard it’s going to be in Dunedin – they are the champions – and we are going into this game with a huge amount of respect.

“We’ve had a really good training week and the guys are feeling upbeat. We want to go out there and impress and put in a good performance.”