Fassi: Sharks must just stick to the plan against Dragons
ARR, beware! There be Dragons near …
The Welsh franchise that the Sharks face this weekend could possibly be a wholly different beast to conquer than the tepid team of last season, or so it would seem after their most recent battle.
In the previous United Rugby Championship season the Welsh-based outfit were a timid wyvern (winged dragon-like creature), with travelling teams easily plundering their lair and walking away with a golden hoard of points and victories.
Abroad, they failed to swoop upon their foes with much dread, and were duly dispatched back to their looted dominion.
In all, they managed only two wins last season, finishing a lowly 15th on the standings.
Nonetheless, after two rounds of URC action, it might be the latter musing that rings true.
They were easily dispatched by Edinburgh in Scotland on the opening weekend, but could prove more resilient at Rodney Parade in Newport on matchday.
After all, they beat Munster there 23-17 last weekend and will be inspired by that victory.
The Sharks, fresh off a wobbly second-half performance against Zebre, but a victory nevertheless last weekend, will test that hypothesis on Saturday.
Yesterday, Sharks assistant coach Noel McNamara was cognisant of this fact, as he is of the opinion that the Dragons will pose different question in all facets of the game than Zebre.
“In terms of the Welsh sides, first and foremost, the weather and the surface is probably going to be different” McNamara said.
“When we arrived (in Newport), it was nice and fair on Sunday. (Yesterday), it was overcast. The temperatures have dropped. Everyone is feeling the cold.
“Against Zebre, the conditions were beautiful. The conditions were fantastic and the surface was quick.
“In terms of playing the Dragons, specifically, they are physical, they go hard at the breakdown. That is going to be particularly important.
“They are good at the set-piece – we saw that against Munster. At the scrums and maul-time, they caused Munster plenty of problems.
“They’ve got pace. They’ve got international wings in Rio Dyer and Ashton Hewitt, and if we give them opportunities, we will be in trouble.”
The Sharks, meanwhile, are no mugs with ball-in-hand either and have shown a willingness to move the ball around with some verve.
Against Zebre it worked a treat in the first half, but when their hosts achieved parity in the second stanza, the Durbanites were guilty of not adapting and rolling with the punches.
Fullback Aphelele Fassi added yesterday that the Sharks need to replicate what they did initially against Zebre in the Dragons encounter.
“One thing we knew was that Zebre, after the result that they had against Leicester (a narrow 33-29 loss), they were going to come out firing in the second half,” Fassi said.
“What we learnt from that, is that we should just stick to our plan.
“Having the perfect first half start that we had against Zebre, and going into this game against the Dragons, is just about sticking to the plan and not deviating away from what we want to achieve.”