Sharks wary of backlash

As flat as the Golden Lions were last weekend in their hammering by Western Province, it would be silly to expect the visitors to King’s Park today to not be breathing fire when they play the Sharks in their Currie Cup clash.

An away win over another title contender could be seen as redemption for a home loss, and, after a heavy, humiliating defeat like they suffered at Ellis Park, the usual response is a backlash, and the Lions will be intent on starting well against the Sharks.

“It’s back to the drawing board for us and we need to play with a lot more energy and intensity. When we get off to a good start, then we tend to have better intensity, but that was not the case against Western Province.

“The only way we know is hard work and we just have to get our boots back on,” Lions lock Marvin Orie said.

While the Lions have such an experienced and quality backline – Ross Cronje, Courtnall Skosan (above), Howard Mnisi, Lionel Mapoe and Andries Coetzee are all Super Rugby stars – so much depends on what quality of possession they get, especially from the set-pieces.

The scrums will be an area of concern for the Lions as the Sharks boast current Springbok Thomas du Toit at tighthead, who will have plenty of pent-up energy to get rid off as he has not played for a while, while Coenie Oosthuizen, capped 30 times for the Springboks but out of rugby for such a long time due to a major knee injury, will also be raring to go when he comes off the bench.

By way of contrast, the Lions will have two relatively inexperienced starting props in Sti Sithole and Johannes Jonker.

The Sharks have made such a good start to the campaign with three successive wins, but with Western Province enjoying the same record and the Lions having only lost once in four games, Today’s match is vital in terms of home semifinals.

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