Quality has hit home for Sharks duo
SOUTH African duo Coenie Oosthuizen and Akker van der Merwe admit Sale Sharks already feels like a home from home after their summer move thanks to familiar faces in the squad.
The new signings know each other well having played in the front-row together for South African franchise the Sharks before arriving in England for the start of the 2019/20 campaign.
And they have settled in quickly to their new surroundings, with van der Merwe scoring twice in his first two appearances while Oosthuizen made his debut off the bench against Wasps.
With their assistance Sale have enjoyed a perfect start to the Premiership Rugby Cup, winning their opening three games to sit on top of Pool 1 and on the cusp of the knockout stage.
A win against London Irish would confirm their place in January’s semifinals – and Oosthuizen was quick to praise his new club for helping the pair hit the ground running.
“Obviously we’ve played in the team together in South Africa with Rohan [Janse van Rensburg] and Faf [de Klerk] which made the trip here much easier,” said Oosthuizen. “I think adapting to a new style of rugby and how the games are played made it a lot easier and the transfer of seasons between South Africa to England also went smoothly. “The competition in the squad is phenomenal, I think you have to earn your right to play here and looking at our past games you can see we’ve had a high ethic of rugby standards.”
On his electrifying start to life at Sale, van der Merwe – whose nickname is ‘The Raging Warthog’ – remained modest and instead set his sights on adding to his two tries.
He said: “[They’ve] been two easy tries to be fair, but I’m obviously not going to complain, so hopefully if I can get a few more and help the team get up there to the top four and hopefully win.” Sale forwards coach Dorian West hailed the impact of the South African pair since their arrival and believes their experience has been a key factor to their quick transition into the team. “They’re both obviously very experienced players, they’ve played a lot of rugby at a top level,” he said. “I think they’ve obviously done really well and everybody who’s watched the games with Akker involved, he’s settled into the team really well, he’s got a lot of strengths that will be good for us. “Coenie’s obviously a bit more of a recent addition. He did well on the weekend coming off the bench and has had a really good training session where he’s impressed people.”
The competition in the squad is phenomenal – you have to earn your right to play here Coenie Oosthuizen