The Hollywoodbets Sharks travel to George to take on the SWD Eagles in a pre-season warm-up match this evening, looking to tick a number of boxes ahead of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship that kicks off in three weeks’ time.
Head coach JP Pietersen has put his squad through their paces for the last couple of months, having assessed the performance in the 2025/26 tournament and where and how the team can improve.
The pre-season friendlies, against the Eagles and 10Bets Lions, deliver the opportunity of testing, analysing and refining performances – both team and individual – before the first game against the Ospreys at Hollywoodbets Kings Park on Saturday 26 September.
“We’ve had a bit of time to build up our pre-season, we’re now in week seven and it’s gone well, with three more weeks left before our first game,” he explains.
“What we’ve done is review and look at how we can get better as a group and the first block focused on robustness and building up the individual athlete as best as possible physically, as well as improving the skillset of the individuals.
“The second block focused on the units, the mini groups of forwards and backs and how they connect, and then working on our attack and defence.
“This final block is now, about team and building cohesion and performance as a group.”
To that end, tonight’s match offers the opportunity to work on those points, assess metrics that have been the focus during pre-season training.
“We’ll be working on how we bring the units into the team, we also have some Carling Currie Cup guys in the mix, so we’re hoping to build cohesion, and then next week another opportunity against the 10Bets Lions,” Pietersen points out.
Talking Currie Cup, there were some standout performances and performers and they will be rewarded with opportunities in the VURC.
“We found some guys, unfortunately Lyle Matthews isn’t eligible this week although we wanted to see him play, but we will see how his quad injury goes.
“Along with a few other Currie Cup guys and those returning from injury, we’ll hopefully see them in action next week.”
With a good blend of youth and experience, Pietersen will be hoping to see some exciting rugby, but also a performance that closely resembles what they have been working so hard for ahead of the VURC.
“The main objective is to give the boys game time and to assess how close or how far we are in match fitness from where we want to be, and the second objective is individuals: will they step up, how they manage themselves, how they perform under pressure and how they perform with new combinations.
“The last part is implementing what we’ve worked on in pre-season into this game, both on attack and defence.
“We want to be fast, physical and relentless. We want our identity to speak for itself on the field.
“With these two friendlies, we hope to build towards the best 23 for the start of the competition and hopefully hit the ground running against Ospreys.”
