Sharks require big team effort

TO give you an idea of the magnitude of the task facing the Sharks today, consider the experience of the respective captains.

For the Sharks, 22-year-old Phepsi Buthelezi has a handful of provincial caps, while the captain of the Lions, lighthouse lock Iain Henderson, has played 120 times for Ulster and has 63 caps for Ireland.

This is a thread that goes through just about every match-up between the teams and it explains why each Shark is going to have to play the game of his life if they are to have any chance of being the first-ever Sharks/Natal team to beat the Lions in over a century of trying.

Particularly among the forwards, the Sharks are going to be up against it and if their set-piece was precarious in the Rainbow Cup SA, it is going to be under heavy siege today, which is why coach Sean Everitt has stacked his bench with six forwards and just two backs in JJ van der Mescht and Reniel Hugo.

“It’s going to be a great challenge, we learnt a lot from their game against our (local) Lions, who probably weren’t aware what an international team can bring,” Everitt said.

“They play at a high intensity, they’re always trying to speed the game up. From a physicality point of view the Lions are right up there and they can vary their game – go from contestable kicks to a running game – because they have high-quality players.

“There’s no room for error, they give you nothing, they have incredible line-speed on defence and they put a lot of pressure on at the breakdown. We are going to need a really good team effort.”

Perhaps the biggest stand-out from the Lions’ matches against Japan and the local Lions is the tempo at which they play the game, which is a major step up from what we have seen from SA teams postlockdown.

“In Europe, there’s a big emphasis on ball-in-play time and that’s the biggest challenge from a South African point of view,” Everitt said.

“Ulster and Leinster played a game recently where the ball-in-play time was 52 minutes, while in the last Currie Cup we were averaging 26-30 minutes. The Lions game at the weekend had 39 minutes of ballin-play.

“It’s certainly something the Sharks have been working on. We want to play at a higher intensity because it’s what we’ll need later in the year when we join Europe. So this game against the Lions will be a good test of how far we still have to go.

“We know the Lions go hard at the ball, they’re physical in the tackle and try to hold you up, so we’ve got to get to the ball quickly.”

The odds are certainly stacked against the Sharks but Everitt’s team will give it their best shot, there is no doubt about that.

“We spoke about the opportunity to make history and if we win we will forever be in the history books. The guys are excited and have watched a lot of northern hemisphere rugby so they know the players and there are no false pretences of the challenge in front of us, but if we can stop their momentum and power game then we are in with a chance,” he said.

LINE-UPS

BRITISH & IRISH LIONS

Starting XV: Liam Williams, Anthony Watson, Elliot Daly, Bundee Aki, Duhan van der Merwe, Dan Biggar, Gareth Davies, Sam Simmonds, Tom Curry, Josh Navidi, Ian Henderson (capt), Adam Beard, Zander Fagerson, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Mako Vunipola

Replacements: Ken Owens, Rory Sutherland, Tadhg Furlong, Tadhg Beirne, Jack Conan, Conor Murray, Stuart Hogg, Chris Harris

SHARKS

Starting XV: Manie Libbok, Werner Kok, Jeremy Ward, Marius Louw, Thaakir Abrahams, Curwin Bosch, Jaden Hendrikse, Phepsi Buthelezi (capt), Thembelani Bholi, James Venter, Hyron Andrews, Ruben van Heerden, Khutha Mchunu, Fez Mbatha, Khwezi Mona Replacements: Kerron van Vuuren, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Wiehahn Herbst, JJ van der Mescht, Reniel Hugo, Dylan Richardson, Grant Williams, Anthony Volmink