Sharks in the zone for play-off spot
THE Sharks will be hoping that the luck of the Irish favours them and not their opponents in their run-in to the play-offs of the United Rugby Championship.
The Sharks are in sixth place on the table, comfortably within the eight-team play-off zone, but they complete their league matches against three in-form Irish teams — Leinster, Connacht and Ulster.
The good news is that the Sharks play Leinster — the perennial champions — at Hollywoodbets Kings Park on April 23, and they also host Connacht a week later, but their final match is away to Ulster in Belfast and the Durbanites do not want to have too much riding on that very tricky fixture.
Leinster are top of the log, Ulster are second, and Connacht are 10th.
Of the South African teams, the Stormers are fifth and thus best placed to win the South African Shield, which guarantees a play-off spot no matter the log finish, while the Bulls are eighth and the Lions a distant 12th.
The Sharks’ clash with the table-topping Leinster will be a cracker and the home team will go into the game on a crest of a wave after strong games against the Dragons and Lions.
Sharks coach Sean Everitt feels his team is in a good position ahead of the visit of Leinster.
“There are a lot of important games to be played in the last few weeks before the play-offs which will heavily influence the overall table,” Everitt said.
“Munster have to play Leinster and Munster have to play Ulster, so there are a lot of overseas derbies. And Glasgow has to play Edinburgh.
“We have two of the Irish teams coming to us and we feel our build-up to these important games has been really good,” the coach continued. “We have had two excellent performances against the Dragons and Lions and even in the loss to Edinburgh, we played some very good rugby. We did everything but win that game.
“We are getting our all-round game right — we scored six tries against the Dragons, we got the bonus point against the Lions and we are conceding fewer tries, so we are enjoying a really good build-up to the big games against the Irish teams.”
For the Leinster game, the Sharks could be boosted by the return from injury of exciting fullback Aphelele Fassi.
“Fassi is on track to return for the Leinster game,” Everitt said. “He is running again and he had to get through a full week of training before we make a decision.”