Tonight’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash at Hollywoodbets Kings Park between the Cell C Sharks and Leinster promises to be an explosive and exciting match between the two sides.
Cell C Sharks head coach Sean Everitt, commenting in the lead-up to the game, suggested that despite Leinster leaving a number of their senior, experienced campaigners back in Ireland, would be every bit as competitive as their log leading status suggests.
“Regardless of who they put out on the park, it’s going to be a strong team,” he said. “They have 10 internationals and although the big names aren’t here, they’re still a formidable outfit.
“They managed to gather 23 log points while the Six Nations was on, so it’s clear what a strong team they are.”
The Irish giants are reaping the rewards of continuity and a strong emphasis on development which has seen them enjoying success regularly in their local and European competitions.
“They’ve had stability in their squad for years now and they have a very good youth academy programme. They have a style of play that focuses on keeping ball in hand, but they’re also really good at managing the game well.”
In assessing how his team need to counter everything that Leinster throw at them, Everitt explained that, “We need to be really accurate in how we attack so that we’re able to keep the ball for long periods of time. The same for our defence, they do keep the ball alive through multiple phases and we have to make sure that we’re alert and ready to defend against their phase play.”
However, he did admit that there were always going to be opportunities and the emphasis on closing out opportunities created remains a core focus.
“Any team will struggle against an opposition that defends well and when you defend well, there will always be turnover opportunities. Our attack has also improved vastly over the last couple of weeks and they will need to stop us too, so accuracy with ball in hand will certainly go a long way to help our cause.
“Our forwards have also been massive and they’ve put in some huge performances in the last few weeks. Credit must go to the pack, they’ve stuck to task and they’ve got dominance and have grown in confidence.”
The Cell C Sharks welcome back Aphelele Fassi from injury and his return couldn’t be more timely.
“He’s been very good in training, he hasn’t had much time on the field lately but we have full confidence in his ability,” the coach explained.
“He is a Springbok and we’re very happy to have him back. Prior to his injury he was playing really good rugby and even received the man of the match award against Benetton. He’s good under the high ball, he’s got a left boot he uses and which has improved a lot.
“But probably most of all is his counter-attacking ability from the back. He’s been really good in that regard and he does bring a lot of x-factor to the team.”
The recent flood damage and disaster in KZN won’t remove the focus for the Cell C Sharks, but it does provide motivation to succeed and in doing so, giving back to the community as Everitt explained.
“It’s always in the back of everyone’s minds when you’ve been through such devastation, there are people who have lost homes and lives. And not just a few lives, but over 400.
“So it is massive, but our focus has been rugby and at the end of the day we have to focus on that to make people happy. But we would like to bring joy to the hearts of our spectators and fans and take their minds off the current circumstances.”