Sharks prepare for Bulls

THE Sharks haven’t had an opportunity to fully address their disappointing defeat to the Lions in their last Super Rugby encounter, but cannot afford to dwell on that result.

This was the sentiment expressed by assistant coach Hugh ReeceEdwards as he looked forward to next Friday’s return match against the Bulls at Mr Price King’s Park.

After three weeks of international action, the most recent round of Super Rugby competition at the beginning of the month feels like a distant memory.

As it is, the Sharks certainly won’t have fond memories of their 38-28 defeat to the Lions on June 2, although soon after that upset, 10 players from the Durban side were named in the Springbok squad for the three-Test series against England.

This weekend the Sharks have a bye before the entire squad re-groups for the first time since that ill-fated encounter, but Reece-Edwards said it would be an opportunity for the team to start afresh.

“We haven’t got together as a team since that night because of the Bok players leaving for camp the following day, so we haven’t dealt with it and will have to address it very quickly, but we also can’t dwell on it, we need to move on. Hopefully when we all come together next week, we’ll see the whole group knit together, ready to turn things around after the last mistake we made.”

This weekend the Sharks will collect an automatic four-log points from their bye, and will then host the Bulls at King’s Park in what is likely to be a season-defining clash.

“The Bulls game is a big one for us, we have to forget past and go out there and do our best,” Reece-Edwards said. “All South African games are big derbies, but it doesn’t get much bigger than the Bulls. In the back of our minds is the way we played the last game and we need to fix that and finish well.

“Certainly, we’ve put a lot of pressure on ourselves, but it’s not something we can’t handle.”

Reece-Edwards said last weekend’s hit-out against ‘Barney’s Army’ had also been of benefit to the non-Springbok Super Rugby players.

“What we wanted to see with the game against the John Smit World XV was where we were after the break. We probably started off a little rusty in certain areas, but the contact and physicality was certainly up there. So, from that point of view, we’re quite happy. We wanted a good, physical hit-out, and that’s, exactly, what we got.”