The Hollywoodbets Sharks host Ulster in the first home game of this year’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship, looking forward to making Hollywoodbets Kings Park a winning venue.
For head coach John Plumtree, the returning Springboks and playing at home bode well for his side that had a huge challenge on their hands in the first three weeks of the tournament.
“The boys were all really enthusiastic about this game,” he explained of the energy the test match veterans bring to a squad that has strong ambitions.
“It’s been a busy couple of days getting everyone up to speed as well as working on the things we needed to and the boys are looking forward to this clash.”
Having the Springboks back does pose the challenge of how that integration happens, but Plumtree pointed to last year’s successes for context.
“That’s always the challenge, last year we did it really well in the same situation, we beat Glasgow and won pretty well, so the challenge is there for us against a team with two-from-two, they’re confident, a well-organised team, with some new additions that have made them better.
“We know it’s going to be a tough match, but the challenge has been to get ourselves as organised as possible. The coaches have been really good sending out all the information to the boys coming back in to help seed up all the learnings, and that’s been really good.
“We feel like we’re ready to go.”
Cohesion can always be a challenge with big changes, but Plumtree feels confident the transition will be relatively seamless.
“We had no problems last year when they came back in, but they fitted in well and played pretty well. We’re a couple of years down the track with what we’re faced with in this competition with having Springboks out and how we integrate them back into our systems.
“We’re more experienced in that space, but the disappointment was not picking up more points on tour. However we had a number of debutants playing and a pretty average pre-season, some guys only joining the team two weeks before we got on a plane and it’s pretty hard to get organised in that short space of time.
“Despite being on the back foot, I was really proud of them, everyone stuck to the task and tried their best.
“But that’s all in the past and we’re looking forward to two home games and then it’s the November break.”
Returning to Hollywoodbets Kings Park is a huge boost for the players, their comfort levels, their sense of pride and the history of making their home ground a fortress.
“A lot of teams are winning their home games at this stage, there haven’t been a lot of away wins for the other teams,” Plumtree explained.
“We think we can do the job at home, and if we do, we’re right back in it.”