Sharks upbeat as they look to restore winning habit against the Rebels

The Sharks made an ideal start to their Super Rugby campaign with back to back wins over foreign opposition before their challenge was disrupted by brace of South African derby defeats.

The Stormers successfully raided Kings Park in week three before the Bulls outmuscled the Sharks at Loftus in week four leaving Robert Du Preez’s men needing to win against the Rebels in Durban on Saturday, to get back into the Super Rugby race.

A bye has allowed the Sharks to reflect on what went wrong and the camp are apparently relishing the challenge the Australians will bring to Kings Park.

Former Springbok and current Sharks assistant coach Ricardo Laubscher said this week: “There’s been a lot of introspection and soul-searching and there is a lot of work happening behind the scenes.

“But despite the disappointment of losing to the Vodacom Bulls, there’s a good vibe in the camp.

“There are things we want to fix so it’s going to be a big week for us.”

The Rebels come into the clash having fluffed a golden opportunity to down the Lions at Ellis Park, surrendering a 33-5 lead to lose 33-36 in a Super Rugby classic.

Laubscher says that the squad feel their log position isn’t a fair reflection of what they are capable of and they are determined to deliver a win for an expectant Shark Tank.

He added: “We want to get out there, the boys can’t wait to get onto the field again, in front of our home fans. We have a score to settle in this competition – we want to get back to winning ways again.”

The Sharks have stated their intention to play their own game after going down in two intense South African derbies but the hosts will have to find ways to reverse pressure at critical moments.

Laubscher said: “Derby games are always tough and physical and looking back at those two games, the Bulls and Stormers put us under a lot of pressure and then played off our mistakes. So we, as the coaches, have come up with a plan on fixing that. That’s why this week is all about ourselves; we want to get back to winning ways.

“Looking back at those two games, it was the big moments when we were under the pump, not clinical enough and it was the small mistakes that put us under pressure.”

The Sharks are well aware of the threat the Rebels all star halfback pairing of Will Genia and Quade Cooper pose but don’t want to allow the pair to draw all their focus defensively.

“They have huge experience at 9 and 10 with Will Genia and Quade Cooper, but we won’t be focusing on individuals. As a team, they will be a handful on attack so we’re going to have to make sure we bring our A-game defensively and then come up with a plan on attack, how we will look to exploit them,” Laubscher added.

“In our meetings, the boys have shown determination to get back on the winning trail and although you’d ideally want to fix that immediately, we had the bye. But it’s been a chance to rest and re-energise and now we’re looking forward to this week.

“It’s a massive week for us, we’re looking forward to a really big game.”

The Sharks meet the Rebels in Saturday 23 March’s 17:15 kick off (SAST).