The Cell C Sharks host Zebre from Italy at Hollywoodbets Kings Park on Saturday looking to further entrench themselves in the top eight of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship.
With a string of good results in recent weeks, the Cell C Sharks do take confidence into this game, but execution is what it’s all about and no amount of positive sentiment can trump the performance.
Having taken a look at Zebre’s performance against the DHL Stormers last week head coach Sean Everitt warns that despite the result, they remain a dangerous proposition.
“The Stormers managed to put Zebre to bed in the first 30 minutes and that’s really important. They’re not as bad a side as the scoreline [55-7] suggests, a couple of weeks ago they ran Ospreys really close in losing narrowly.
“They’re an unpredictable and dangerous team and we need to be accurate in our execution. They have a good maul and have a two-sided attack, they attack from both sides of the ruck, so our defence and width on defence is going to have to be really good against them.
“They have a real good kicking game, they like to kick the ball long which could give us opportunities.”
In making changes for this week’s game, Everitt has handed Grant Williams the number nine jersey, explaining that, “This is a case of rotation, Grant hasn’t started in some time now, and I’d like to give both scrumhalves equal time. On top of that, he did really well coming off the bench last week and deserves a start.”
Centre Ben Tapuai also get s a start, with the coach pointing out that, “Ben is a skilful player as we kn ow. He does offer play-making ability and we just want to see how he goes in that channel now that Lukhanyo is in Japan.”
For a team with a number of Springboks in it up against a struggling Italian side that has yet to win a game in the competition, Everitt said that attention is more on what his side does than on the opposition.
“This game is all about the performance, although we’ve got the result and a full house of 15 points in the last three games, our performances weren’t where we wanted them to be.”
He added that being clinical is something they have also focused on and what they want to get right this week.
“Here in Durban we’re going to have to be accurate in how we manage the game and we need an improvement in the accuracy of our kicking which wasn’t there last week.
“We know that the individuals we have can do the job accurately, we just need to be better this week and better going forward.”
“The focus is on us, to try to rectify the performances so that we can remain in the top eight and be a threat in the quarter-finals.”
Saturday’s clash at Hollywoodbets Kings Park kicks off at 6.30pm.