DURBAN - When the Sharks lost comprehensively to Griquas in the first round of the Currie Cup last year, visiting coach Brent Janse van Rensburg was all smiles at the post-match press conference, and understandably so after the giant-killing act
Even bearing in mind that new Sharks coach Sean Everitt had just a week to prepare a new squad for the match, it was a very good Griquas performance in a what would be an excellent season for the team from Kimberley, and it is quite possible that it had something to do with Sharks boss, Eduard Coetzee, convincing Janse van Rensburg to join the Sharks this year as forwards coach.
Yesterday, the 39-year-old old was bedecked in Sharks colours a content man as he spoke to the media.
“There is a fresh flavour at the Sharks with a lot of new blood on and off the field,” Janse van Rensburg said. “I certainly think the future for the Sharks is bright if we can hold onto this group of players for a few years because the talent here is incredible.
It was put to Janse van Rensburg that as forwards coach he had a tough challenge given that the Sharks lost so many senior forwards last year, the Du Preez twins (Jean-Luc and Dan), Tendai Mtawarira, Akker van der Merwe et al, but he said he would not entertain excuses, only solutions.
In short, he said the Sharks would just change the way they play towards their strengths, possibly even moving to how Japan plays.
“I think whatever brand you want to play, certain parts of the game remain unchanged,” Janse van Rensburg said. “You have got to get go-forward, you need to win your set-piece, you need to be smart about how you run the ball depending on how the opposition defends against you, you need to stop their momentum - those things are unchanged.
“We do have forwards who are quite mobile, which obviously complements our (dangerous) backline. But if you look at the way we are playing, it will be important for us to be very good in our transitional play. If you are moving the ball around and lose it, it is important that you handle the next transition. We worked on that transition between defence and attack quite a lot during our pre-season.
“Essentially, it is going to come down to execution, no matter what the plan is. But we have made adjustments according to the players that we have. There is quite a lot of change in the way we do things defensively. That has been considering the players that we have, what suits their DNA and what we believe the long-term process will give us as a good return on investment.
“It will take some time to reach its potential, but if we can just hold on to the players and focus on the process of what we need to do to become consistent in our execution, then hopefully we can lift the ceiling. If we keep doing the same thing all the time, the ceiling never gets lifted.”
The Bulls visit the Sharks on Friday for a massive South African Super Rugby derby and Janse van Rensburg expects the Pretoria-based team to be boosted by World Cup props Trevor Nyakane and Lizo Gqoboka, neither of whom featured at Superhero Sunday.
“I think all the teams will be a bit stronger than what they were on Marvel Day,” he said. “If you look at the Bulls, Nyakane and Gqoboka will make a big difference. South African derbies are just different. The physicality of the game and the handling of pressure moments... So, I expect quite an intense affair on Friday.
“The Bulls will certainly want to get dominance and go forward. They keep a structured attack from set-piece play. They also have a very good kicking game (Morne Steyn), they like to place a lot of kicks behind the defensive line and I think they will challenge us with that. The key thing for us is to handle the set-piece, kicking game and to stop their momentum. You can’t allow them go-forward over the gain-line because that gives them life and then they start asking questions.”
Mike Greenaway
The Mercury
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