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Durban - With a warm-up match against the Golden Lions in Pietermaritzburg on Friday evening and the Currie Cup kicking off next weekend, the Sharks players are starting to feel the excitement.
Utility back S’Bura Sithole performed well in Super Rugby, playing in the latter stages and making an impression in the final eight matches after injuring himself in the opening match of the tournament.
But he hopes to continue the great form he showed in the looming Currie Cup.
“I’m looking forward to taking all the confidence I gained - even if it was a slow start initially - into the Currie Cup and hopefully play even better rugby,” he told Sharks website editor Michael Marnewick.
He also acknowledges that although not a senior player, he does bring a wealth of experience and knows that he has a big role to play.
“With the situation as it is, losing a lot of our Boks and players overseas, we all do get pushed up into more of a senior role in the team. The way I play, I like to lead by example, so I’ll continue like that, hopefully play good rugby and the other players do the same.”
The best way to play well is to be fully prepared and he admits that they have spent a lot of time and effort into moulding themselves into a competitive unit.
“We’ve been training for a few weeks now, we’ve done a lot of fitness work with a large focus on skills, so it’s been a very constructive pre-season so far and with the energy brought by the young guys, everyone is excited for the upcoming Currie Cup competition.
“We have a young side, we’re looking at around 23 or 24 as the average age of players, and it’s not so much about how many caps a player has, but how everyone performs on the day. We have a team with young, exciting guys who want to perform.”
He also knows that the excitement needs to be tempered by playing in the right places and making the right decisions of when to attack and when it would be foolhardy to try.
“Stats have proved that teams who run the ball too much and don’t kick too much, don’t always win. It’s all about finding a balance, so that if we’re under pressure, or in certain parts of the field, we know what our strategy is. But when it comes to us attacking in their half, the guys want to bring some flair to the attack. We want to find the balance; we are not saying we are going to play a lot more rugby, but we certainly are going to be more exciting.
“During the pre-season we’ve worked a lot on our decision-making drills, the coaches have put us in different situations on the field that require us to make certain decisions, and hopefully that, mixed with the game plan and the guys we have in our team, will enable us to play well.”
