Sharks primed for a Jaguares Test pack
Sharks coach Sean Everitt says his charges are still a work in progress, but he admires how they developed on their successful Australasian tour.
How far they have really come as a unit‚ especially as a pack‚ will be tested when they face the Jaguares at Kings Park on Saturday in their first home game since the first week of the tournament.
The Sharks pack was tested by the Reds‚ who were also put through the thresher by the Jaguares in an earlier fixture.
The Jaguares had the better of the Bulls pack in a comfortable win last week.
“We’ve been criticised over the past five games in that our set-piece hasn’t performed in the manner in which it should. I thought there was a big improvement against the Reds, but the Jaguares have a Test pack so we have to be up for the challenge‚” Everitt said.
“We know we’ve improved‚ but we’re not where we want to be. In the games played‚ they’ve used the maul effectively.
“They came back from a big deficit against the Reds to win the game‚ so they’re a threat. We defended the Reds’ maul extremely well, and I think it’s one of the reasons we won the game.”
The Sharks will have S’bu Nkosi back from injury and Makazole Mapimpi back from a week’s rest for Saturday’s encounter in Durban.
Loose forwards James Venter and Tyler Paul beef up the Sharks pack ahead of a forward battle that should decide the outcome.
The Sharks have to deal with the slight fatigue of an overseas tour where they won three out of four matches.
The Jaguares though have been in SA for three weeks and in the Bulls game it showed they had come to terms with SA conditions.
The 2019 visit was also a fruitful one when the Jaguares crushed the Sharks 51-17.
The Sharks are a different breed this year‚ with Everitt saying the tour did them a world of good.
“We always want to be performance driven and in the three games we did win‚ we performed really well in attack and defence. That’s what it takes to win rugby matches‚” the coach said.
“We’ve learnt from the mistakes of the Hurricanes game and we haven’t repeated them. It’s just a case of getting better and better.”