JP Pietersen welcomes back Jordan Hendrikse and wants a fast start in France, where Lyon will be fired up at home after losing last week. Connection is the message for the Hollywoodbets Sharks.
Today’s Group A clash in the EPCR Challenge Cup has the Hollywoodbets Sharks based in France for their first-round Group Stage match against Top 14 side Lyon at Matmut Stadium.
Head coach JP Pietersen has enjoyed a few positive selection headaches given the availability of players for this match, including welcoming back Springbok flyhalf Jordan Hendrikse to the starting line-up.
“It’s good to have Jordan back,” confirmed the coach. “He struggled with a hammy but he looks in good nick now, the body is all good and he’s part of an exciting backline. Hopefully he and a few experienced campaigners can unleash the backs.
“We’re happy to have Jordan back, but there’s no pressure on him, we just want him to get some game fitness in and get through the match.”
Having opted to rest his Boks this week rather than during the start of the VURC – a squad decision in consultation with the players – Pietersen has, nonetheless selected a strong team for this match.
“If you look at the side, it’s a very good one,” said the coach. “We have a lot of experienced players who have played a lot of the Hollywoodbets Sharks, from the front row with Hanro Jacobs, to Stephan Lewies and Deon Slabbert in the second row, Matt Ramao, an exciting youngster and Manu Tshituka with Nick Hatton.
“Then Ivan van Zyl who has huge experience, Jordan who has played plenty of games for us, Murray Koster and Suleiman Hartzenberg who played more than 50 games for the DHL Stormers and Jaco Williams, a Springbok. Lili Bester who has shown his class together with Zekhethelo Siyaya who is more than capable of doing the job against a very good Lyon side.”
Speaking of the hosts, Pietersen acknowledged the challenge that Lyon pose for this opening game of the tournament.
“They’re similar to us, they’ll want to move the ball and play a high-tempo game and I think we have the mix right with the set-piece and play with enough flexibility to deal with whatever they bring to the game.”
French rugby is almost unique in that home ground advantage is almost taken for granted and already this season’s Top 14 has produced around 70% home wins. While away wins aren’t common, they certainly happen and this is a challenge worth fighting for.
“I played in Toulon so I remember that playing at home is so important for the French clubs, it’s do-or-die for them and we know Lyon will be highly emotional for this game. They lost last week so their backs will be against the wall and they will look to start the game with a bang.
“We know we must be ready for whatever they throw at us, those first 20 minutes are going to be so important to either stay in the game or put them under pressure.
“It is tough to win away from home – in the VURC, EPCR Challenge Cup, the Champions Cup – it’s a huge challenge.”
With a VURC start that heralded two home wins and a loss on the road, the focus has shifted to the EPCR Challenge Cup and perhaps a different message to the team?
“We had a tough mini campaign of three games before this one and it’s been important to freshen the squad up and give other guys an opportunity to play, and the message for these two weeks is about connecting: connecting game model, connecting vision for where we want to go.
“We still want to be better in the way we want to play within our game model and that’s all about connection.
“We’ve also challenged ourselves not to make the excuse that this is a new group coming together that’s still finding one another. We’ve had a good week to connect and we don’t want to make any excuses after the game that we didn’t have enough time to connect.
“So the message was all about connection and staying with the vision. It’s a process, it will take time and we had a setback against the DHL Stormers and now we have the opportunity to show that we can bounce back.”
Today’s EPCR Challenge Cup clash kicks off at 2pm.
