Preview: The Cell C Sharks vs Hurricanes – Featured Durban Blog

The Cell C Sharks face the Hurricanes in Wellington on Saturday morning in their Vodacom Super Rugby quarter-final clash knowing that they’ve shown the potential to beat anyone this season.

There have been outstanding performances, particularly against the New Zealand sides, and specially a mid-season victory over the Hurricanes when they were probably not giving the Durban side the respect they deserved. And they paid for it.

But this weekend’s Hurricanes team will not be making the same mistake twice and the coaching staff will have impressed on them that fact all week.

Director of Rugby Gary Gold believes that another victory is within grasp – provided the team play to their full potential.

“The good thing from a knowledge and confidence point of view is that we know if we play well, we have the ability to beat them, and I thought we played particularly well in our pool match against them,” he explains.

“But this is a completely different kettle of fish. They’re playing really well at the moment and Wellington is a tough place for us to go. But, in saying that, I’m quite excited, very excited actually. It’s a great opportunity, we feel confident that we’ve played all five New Zealand teams so we feel that the preparation is there. We’ll give it a full go.

“We want to go out there with a positive mindset about how we want to play, and ask questions.”

Captain Tendai Mtawarira will have, amongst his rugby roles, a leadership and mentoring role to play, especially making sure the younger players aren’t overawed by the size of the occasion.

“All season this young team has really stepped up to the plate, everybody is excited and it’s well-deserved to have reached this stage,” he explains. “But in knock-out matches, you only get a couple of opportunities and in our preparation, we’ve been making sure we work very hard on our detail in training, control the controllables and I’m sure that if we bring a performance like we have when we’ve been at our best this season, then we’re in with a massive chance.”

Having played countless games against New Zealand opposition, both at Super Rugby and International level, Beast is well-equipped to know what it takes to win.

“When you go up against Kiwi sides, you know that you have to front up physically, because they will bring it on and look to bully you from the onset. So a good start is really important and we have to get into the game from the get go.”