Sharks up for Bulls challenge

With just three games left to play in the domestic competition, the Sharks are precariously placed in fifth place on the log - one place away from a spot in the playoffs. They can still book a semifinal berth but it will take three wins on the trot if they are to have a chance.

The Sharks are looking no further than tonight’s clash and have taken some lessons out of their gruelling loss to the Lions last weekend.

“It is a big challenge for both of us. We’ve both been disappointed – our loss to Western Province and theirs and our loss to the Lions and theirs funnily enough. It’s going to be a very big battle this weekend,” Sharks coach Gary Gold said earlier this week.

“The guys are really up for it although we’ve only had one training session this week - I think they were hurting last week against the Lions. I felt again that at half time we were in the game and two soft tries let them in. To come away from Ellis Park two tries a piece – it hurts a lot and the guys are looking to make amends.”

Philip van der Walt, who will captain the side tonight, said the season has proved to be a constant learning experience

“It’s not nice struggling as a team especially if we feel we’ve been preparing well so for us it’s a big game. I think there is an excitement and feeling of wanting to play a good game for our supporters and even our coaches – they’ve shown a huge amount of belief in us and it feels bad as a player when you’re coaches believe in you and you don’t back that up,” Van der Walt said.

“For us as players, I don’t think we feel the pressure of having to do anything else than what we’ve prepared to do. We are excited to prove we are better than we’ve shown in the last couple of weeks and I think there are certain aspects that we’ve failed and not done well at. But we’ve definitely worked and improved and the big thing is to get all of those aspects right at the same time for 80 minutes. We’ve done well at certain times of a game, but not the whole game.”

While the Sharks are dead-set on getting into the playoffs, Gold admitted he hasn’t been fretting over their position on the Currie Cup log.

“The truth of the matter is that we have to focus on what we can do and that is not a cliché. We feel that we should have won games we didn’t, we feel we should have got bonus points in games that we didn’t and I say ‘we feel’ as in we let ourselves down, we don’t think anyone else had anything to do with it,” Gold said.

“We know what we want to do; we’ve got an inner confidence for large periods of time in almost all our games that we’ve shown and we’re just not consistent enough with it. That’s what it is and we’re hard on ourselves about it. We’ve got to defend those long phases like we did against the Lions more consistently and not lose concentration.”

“As Phillip says, I believe it’s coming from an overexcitement – the guys are trying too hard. I’d like them to stay calm, back themselves like we back them and go out there and enjoy themselves.”

The Sharks face the Bulls tonight. Kick-off is at 20h00.

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