Sharks eye home Currie Cup final

The Durban outfit have gone unbeaten in eight games and have a massive buffer at the top of the Currie Cup log. After a fairly grueling fixture list, the Durban outfit will enjoy home comforts for the final three matches of the regular season.

A win over the Bulls this weekend will secure a semi-final at Growthpoint Kings Park in just over a month and the team seems hell bent on ending the season without leaving Durban again.

“It’s great to be back at home, the whole squad has been looking forward to it is these three home games. To be honest, we’re aiming to make it five home games for the end of the year,” Sharks hooker Franco Marais said on Tuesday.

“We want to win every game, we don’t want to lose any momentum. We’re not going to look at the log and think we only need two points to secure a home semi-final, we want to win every game back in Durban, we owe our fans good performances.”

The Sharks have firmly established themselves as the competition favourites and some of their most recent performances have been impressive across the board. Their pack has asserted dominance while their backline has attacked with width and speed, resulting in some fantastic tries.

Marais says the team vowed to emulate the style and speed they’d played with in Super Rugby.

“We told each other at the start of the campaign that we wanted to play with Super Rugby intensity. We didn’t lose a lot of players to the Springboks and overseas clubs, there is no excuse not to have that intensity.

“We want to have dominance up front but we also want to interlink across the board. AB Zondagh, our skills coach, has done amazing things for us. That’s why you’re seeing a lot more offloads and interplay between forwards and backs,” the hooker said.

Realistically, the Pumas and Griquas stood the sternest test in terms of physicality this season but this weekend’s clash takes the Sharks into unchartered waters.

The Bulls are in a rebuilding phase under their new coach John Mitchell. The man who laid the platform for the Lions’ revival is looking to do the same across the Juksei in Pretoria – and Marais admits the Bulls will present a mixed bag this weekend.

“They’ve got quite an expansive game plan at the moment, they run the ball out from kick-offs, from everywhere really. The Bulls will also stick to their strong dominant forwards. The pack know it’s going to be physical, but the backs will have a different challenge then they’re used to from the Bulls.”

The Sharks host the Bulls on Saturday at Growthpoint Kings Park. Kickoff is at 15h00.