John Plumtree is prepping the Sharks for “a lot of heat” on attack and defence from the DHL Stormers on Saturday, as his rival John Dobson expects plenty of physicality.
The Stormers face the Durban outfit in round 10 of the Vodacom URC at Kings Park, in what is set to be a blockbuster grudge match. The coastal teams renew hostilities after the Capetonians edged the Sharks in a tense clash in the Mother City three weeks ago.
Dobson’s charges are in seventh place on the standings, while the Durbanites are languishing at the foot of the table, yet the Stormers coach has tasked his team with raising their game from the previous meeting.
“Our last URC game was against the Sharks … physically we were poor,” he told reporters this week. “They dented us well with their forwards’ carries [and] our physicality wasn’t good enough.
“What we learnt from the backend of European competition is we need to generate faster ball, so we’ve got plans around that… where we carry, how to generate faster ball, that’s important for us. And there’s been some work around our kicking game.
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“So, we’ve got to step up our physicality this week. We want to generate faster ball but we just have to make sure that with the contestable game we protect our carries better than we did in Paris [against Stade Francais] and here against Sale [Sharks].”
The Sharks have just one win from their opening nine URC matches, and Plumtree believes his troops cannot afford any slip-ups this week.
“The set-piece battle was massive against the Stormers, it’s an area of our game we’re working really hard on and showing good signs of improvement,” the Sharks boss said.
“You can’t really afford to not win your own ball, so that’s been a big focus for us.
“They bring a lot of heat in terms of their line speed [on defence], you have to have a good strategy on how you’re going to play them. And when they have possession they’ve got a lot of dynamic players, so defensively we’ve got to be really good on the day.
“We were pretty good in parts of the game in Cape Town … so we know what to expect and are working on being able to cope with what they have.”
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