At the end of last year, Cobus Reinach and Pat Lambie finished the international season as the incumbent halfback pair for the Springboks, and the dynamic duo are now looking to continue building on that ever-improving combination in Super Rugby.
Last Saturday, Reinach and Lambie controlled the game against the Lions with aplomb in difficult wet weather conditions, with Reinach scoring a typically opportunistic try, while Lambie produced a pinpoint kicking game and contributed nine points via the boot.
Reinach has really come into his own over the last year, and after an outstanding Super Rugby season, he was rewarded with a Springbok call-up for the Rugby Championship, with the nuggety No 9 making his debut in the team’s big win over the Wallabies at Newlands.
Coming off the bench, Reinach marked the occasion with an outstanding 50 metre break with virtually his first touch, which eventually led to a try that was finished off by none other than Lambie.
“I definitely feel I’ve grown as player in that time,” he commented after Sharks training yesterday. “The more experience you gain, the more comfortable you become. So confidence-wise I'm feeling good, and having Pat next to me helps as well, he's a calm, cool-headed guy, and that always makes a big difference.”
Reinach said they had been particularly pleased by the improvement in their kicking game during last Saturday’s wet weather win over the Lions.
“It was a really good result to come away with a bonus-point… In the wet it’s really quite hard to express yourself in the backline, but I think we did well in terms of our kicking game because you have to control the game territorially in those sorts of conditions.”
The 25-year-old scrumhalf said they knew that aspect of the game would also be crucial against the Bulls up in Pretoria this Saturday, although he admitted they were hoping for conditions to be better suited to a ball-in-hand game.
“We’re hoping for a dry weather game so that we can play a bit more rugby. But if it comes down to a kicking game, I think we’ll feel quite prepared. I think the Bulls invented the kicking game…so we have to be accurate in what we do in that regard,” he added with a laugh.
While the Sharks have received a massive confidence boost from their win over the Lions, they will know that the Bulls are set to provide a very different challenge at Loftus.
“The Bulls will be hurting after back-to-back losses, we know they’re going to throw everything at us,” Reinach commented. “You have to win your home games in this competition, and so we know they’re going to come out firing on all cylinders this weekend after slipping up at Loftus early on.”
It was a sentiment echoed by No 8 Ryan Kankowski, who looks set to make his first Super Rugby appearance this Saturday after recently returning from Japan.
“As everybody knows, you can’t win Super Rugby in the first few rounds, but you can lose it. The Bulls will be anxious to start winning soon, especially against South African teams, because winning the local conference has such big advantages. We are expecting a very tough game.”
On a personal note, Kankowski said he was looking forward to getting stuck into Super Rugby action again, although the rangy loose-forward acknowledged that the heat of Durban had taken some getting used to again.
“For me, it is has been mostly about adjusting to the heat after coming from the snow (in Japan). It’s going to be another physical challenge playing on the highveld, but I feel ready, and fortunately this is a very happy camp, which has made it easy for me to slot back in.”