Durban – Sharks winger Lwazi Mvovo believes they must go “back to basics” if they want to rekindle their form from earlier in the season and reignite their Super Rugby bid over the closing weeks of the season.
The Durban side, long time leaders of the competition in 2014, have slipped up badly over the past two rounds, losing to the Stormers and the Cheetahs either side of the June international break to drop to third on the overall table.
“We just want to take a step back and look at what we can do,” Mvovo said on Tuesday.
“We need to get back to the basics. Have a look at the mistakes we made, just rectify that and move forward.”
Director of rugby Jake White saw his team go down 21-19 at home to their Cape rivals, whom they face in their final regular season game at Newlands this week. He then witnessed an almost second-string team lose 27-20 to the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein over the past weekend.
It meant they must now win, in all probability with a bonus point, against the Stormers in Cape Town to have any chance of finishing in the top two and, with it, claiming an automatic semi-final berth.
The number one and number two ranked sides, currently the Waratahs and Crusaders, on the overall log have a bye on the opening weekend of the playoffs next week.
“There's so many wrongs we did in the last two games that we lost,” Mvovo said.
“So the last couple of days we've spoken about it, we just want to rectify that, get back to our game plan and go to Cape Town and just play.
“Get back to the dream, the standards and the goals we set ourselves at the beginning of the season.”
He insisted there was a strong will to rediscover the form they showed on the overseas leg of their season, where they won three out of four games and also secured a famous win over the Crusaders in Christchurch.
“We played very well overseas and I'm sure if we put our mind back to our game, we can get back to winning ways,” the winger said.
Mvovo was among a group of eight players who had played in all 15 games for the Sharks this season.
He admitted fatigue had been catching up to him, although he was now ready for the final push.
“I was tired at the Springboks, but we are professionals and have to bear it and move on.
“Lots of guys have also been rested and some others have played a lot, it's a matter of just performing on the week and doing the recovery after the weekend and getting back on your feet again.
“I did get a bit of a break with the Springboks because I didn't play all the games. Every team and every player needed those four weeks to be off.” –Sapa