Frans and Jannie back for Sharks

Kickoff is at 09h35 in the morning - South African time.

Gary Gold answered the following questions today:

Your general thoughts following the Highlanders defeat

It was obviously a very disappointing game on the weekend, for all involved, certainly not the result we expected and we made a very good team look outstanding by making so many errors. We counted about 15 times we lost the ball, coughed up possession at critical times and against a team with a backline like theirs, they’re going to hurt you. We saw it in the early exchanges when we lost the ball 2m from their line and they ran the length of the field and scored. We have a new challenge this weekend, the guys have worked particularly hard around the error rate.

Righting the wrongs

The issue for us is that this is a matter of pride, of massive pride. We’ve let a lot of people down, we’ve let a lot of supporters down. The expectations were high for this team. I’m not about to provide any excuses for what happened in our performance, it was sub-standard and whatever the reasons are, we’ll investigate that. I take responsibility for it, I’ve said that before, but the bottom line is that we have to fix it. The business we’re in provides us with lots of opportunities to fix it. If we don’t fix it this weekend, we’re going to be on the end of another hiding and none of us wants that. We understand what this weekend is going to bring, there’s a big personal element involved, I’m a good friend of Plum but it doesn’t help that he knows the intricacies of nearly all of our players.

Hurricanes in a good position and not likely to ease up are they

No, especially when one considers how tightly-fought the New Zealand Conference is. The Hurricanes would be silly to even remotely take the foot off the gas and they’re going to play a team low on confidence, whose form has been particularly poor and they’re going to see that as blood in the water. We realise that the season is probably getting away from us and from our point of view, it’s a matter of playing for pride, week after week and showing our supporters that this jersey matters a lot to us. The performances have hurt us and we have to fix it.

Return of Frans Steyn

Yes, he is available for us this weekend and it’s wonderful to have a guy like Frans back. Jannie is also back which makes a difference for us, although we’ve lost Cobus who has returned home. It’s cruel how sport is – when things are bad they’re particularly bad. We’ve had an injury crisis but it is an opportunity for young guys to step up to the plate. We have some big challenges ahead, but other teams have also been in this position before and came out stronger. So it’s exciting to have guys like Frans, Jannie and Renaldo back and it’s important that we focus on the positives.

Where to from here in terms of the tour and remainder of the season

It’s about gaining pride. Letting the supporters realise that we are hurting in this matter; for us, this is far from what we expect. We have three games to go and nowhere to hide – no one wants to hide – and it’s about showing some incredible courage. We want to show, as players, and to the supporters, that we have a lot of fight still in us. In the next two weeks, we’re playing two of the top teams in the competition, so we have our work cut out for us, but that's what this sport does for us; it provides challenges that normal day-to-day life doesn’t. The unbelievable challenges with our backs against the wall. I have absolutely no doubt that we are going to learn a lot of lessons in the next few weeks and there are going to be some huge challenges awaiting us. From my point of view, this is a group that has to show that we want to fight for our pride and to show everyone what it means to us to be involved in The Sharks.  

(File Photo: Andre Bloem)

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