History favours Bulls
LOFTUS DERBY: HIGH-FLYING SHARKS MOTIVATED TO SET RECORD STRAIGHT
Despite huge first-leg defeat, Sharks come to Loftus knowing their hosts are on a losing trail.
Momentum has shifted since their previous meeting, with Du Preez’s side in the driver’s seat of late.
If ever there was a team coming to Loftus Versfeld extremely motivated to derail the Bulls’ hopes it will be the Sharks today, following the hammering they took in Durban from John Mitchell’s side a month ago.
The rugby the Bulls produced that day at Kings Park on their way to a record 40-10 victory was a thing of beauty, but their journey has taken something of a detour since then with successive losses to the Highlanders and Stormers.
While the momentum has shifted in favour of the Sharks since then, especially coming off their turbo-charged win over the Highlanders last weekend, recent history does not favour the KwaZulu-Natalians. In the last 10 years, the number of Super Rugby wins the Sharks have enjoyed at Loftus Versfeld is nil.
Taking the performances of the two teams this season as a whole, the sides are quite evenly matched, both scoring 3.6 tries per game. But their way of achieving those results is obviously different. Mitchell highlighted the physicality and offload game of the Sharks as being their key threats.
“They’re coming with massive momentum and they’ll look to dominate the gain-line, that’s very clear. We have to respect that mindset they’re going to come with, but it’s important we focus on ourselves and our territory because it’s very dangerous to get sucked into what they’re doing.
“Offloading is also a strength of the Sharks, they believe in it and played very well last week because of that. We use a different style and it’s up to who manages to impose their style on the other team,” Mitchell said.
Sharks coach Robert du Preez highlighted the discipline of his team as being a key area of focus; the fact that their captain, Ruan Botha, is the most penalised player in Super Rugby is significant.
“Discipline is one of the biggest things in derbies and we cannot concede silly penalties and especially not cards, because they just put so much pressure on the team,” Du Preez said. Kick-off: 5.15pm
We use a different style and it’s up to who manages to impose their style on the other team
Bulls coach John Mitchell