Preview: Cell C Sharks vs Harlequins:
Saturday heralds a new dawn on the rugby landscape as the Cell C Sharks get their Heineken Champions Cup debut off to a cracking start against Harlequins at Hollywoodbets Kings Park.
Cell C Sharks Director of Rugby Neil Powell has selected a powerful team to host the English side and his expectation from the returning Springboks is that their contribution is matched by their team-mates.
“We expect the Boks to almost slot back seamlessly into the team, but it’s going to take a team effort,” he said in the build-up to this historic day.
“We can’t just rely on certain individuals to make this weekend a success. The big focus has been on getting the Boks on the same page as everyone else in terms of where we want to go and our game plan.
“But we know they will bring massive effort and high standards to this team and I’m really excited to see them play this weekend. Siya Kolisi and Eben Etzebeth are back, we tried keepinhg the changes to a minimum to ensure we have a bit of cohesion and flow for this game.”
Powell admitted that in a different competition, there is a lot at stake this weekend, “but we’ve had a good week of prep and I’m happy with where we are, both detail and intensity-wise.”
Although it’s a new competition, the essence and basics of rugby remain and Powell explained that he wants the Cell C Sharks to be a team that plays the game well both ways, whether on attack or defending, and to work hard on both.
“One of the focus points for us was that we’ve perhaps not been patient on attack in the past and couldn’t hang onto the ball for a long period of time. So going into this week, it’s about having more patience and more respect for the ball, knowing that we’ll come up against very good attacking systems.
“Defensively, we have to be very structured, everyone needs to be on the exact same page with regard to roles and responsibilities, and with that, we need to be dominant and physical.”
A new competition with different opposition inevitably presents a new set of challenges and Harlequins will test the Cell C Sharks in a big way.
“Quins are a team that likes to attack and we need to counter that. They have more of a ball-in-hand approach and they like to play from everywhere, so in our analysis we’ve tried to work out a defensive system that keeps them out.”
With the team having settled now with the Springboks back and a decent amount of time to prepare, Powell admitted that the theme this week has been all about a focus on effort.
“We want to make sure we put in a good performance against Harlequins and we really want for all the guys to give us a great effort, not just on the weekend but in this week’s preparations as well.
“We also spoke about accuracy, we can be a lot more accurate in the implementation of what we want to achieve.
“Then it’s belief. We have a really good team individually and it’s a case of getting that belief that we can be successful in this competition.”
The post Preview: Cell C Sharks vs Harlequins appeared first on The Sharks.
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Quick Durban KwaZulu-Natal Fact: The “Cuban Hat” and its neighbour “The Nest” were two very popular drive in locales situated on the then Lower Marine Parade in Durban. They were especially popular in the late 50s / early 60s when own car transport became an essential must have amongst young adults. These were the days when young adult life changed considerably when freedom of movement, the changed music and habits of the time and there was a general improvement in living standards. Initially any form of car was better than none because as the saying was, it enabled you to get to “where the action was”. Action being where parties, socials, “sessions” and get togethers. The fact that you could pick up your mates or girl friends and go together as a group made life good. Parents of the time had to adjust to the times because they were brought up when stricter parental control was generally enforced. The days of dates being, sitting in the lounge with the parents were no longer and life was now centred on getting out and about and mixing with your own age group.
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