Durban - It will be red faces all around if the Sharks return from Italy on Monday without a bag full of United Rugby Championship points given they are at their full strength and their opponents, Benetton, have 13 frontline troops doing Six Nations duty for their country in Dublin against Ireland.
When the Sharks first dipped their fins in the URC waters, last November, they had 10 players away with the Springboks in Australia and that certainly played a role in their one-from-four success rate.
Even then, the Sharks learnt quickly on tour and finished strongly, so now they are battle-wise plus have all of their Boks back which means there can be no excuses for the Sharks in Treviso on Saturday (kick-off 5pm).
Also, all of South Africa remember painfully how Benetton thrashed the Bulls in the Rainbow Cup final last June so, depleted or not, Benetton will not be taken lightly and the Sharks will be duly focussed.
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Coach Sean Everitt says nothing will be left to chance and that is also why he has picked ace goal-kicker Curwin Bosch, who not so long ago was frozen out of the starting line-up because of poor form.
The Sharks need this win desperately to climb out of the bottom half of the URC log and the goal-kicking of Boeta Chamberlain and Tito Bonelli has been average, and that is not good enough.
“Curwin’s done well in the last few weeks and, as we saw when he came on against the Bulls, he kicked well for poles,” Everitt said.
“We haven’t been as good as we would have liked with the accuracy of our pole kicking. Hopefully, Curwin will take that challenge away,” he said.
“Also, the challenge in front of us is that Benetton has the fourth most kicking metres in the competition, so it makes sense to go for like-for-like and that’s why Curwin gets a run,” the coach said of a flyhalf that kicks the ball a country mile.
Everitt stressed that there is zero chance of complacency.
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“One of our goals is to finish in the top eight, and if we win this game with a bonus point, we could jump a few notches from ninth,” he said of the importance of winning.
“Benetton are in the top eight and have run some top teams close,” he added. “The kicking game challenge that we’ll face is the same as what Ospreys gave us in Wales.
“The Ospreys are also in the top five for metres kicked. You’ve got to be very smart in how you manage the game.
“Benetton rely a lot on their maul as a source of possession and to attack from. Playing in the right areas of the field is vitally important and Curwin will certainly play a major role in that.”
SHARKS TEAM:
15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Sbu Nkosi, 13 Lukhanyo Am (captain), 12 Marius Louw, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Curwin Bosch, 9 Jaden Hendrikse, 8 Phepsi Buthelezi, 7 Henco Venter, 6 Siya Kolisi, 5 Gerbrandt Grobler, 4 Ruben van Heerden, 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Ox Nche.
Bench: 16 Kerron van Vuuren, 17 Ntuthuko Mchunu, 18 Khutha Mchunu, 19 Le Roux Roets, 20 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 21 Cameron Wright, 22 Tito Bonilla, 23 Werner Kok.
IOL Sport