Sharks scrumhalf Grant Williams plans to run circles around the DHL Stormers in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship derby at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday.
The feisty halfback showed a scintillating burst of speed in scoring the first try for the Sharks in a narrow defeat to Ulster in Durban last week.
But, on Saturday, Williams and his teammates face the task of trying to revive their hopes of finishing in the URC top four this season, by beating the defending champions on their home turf.
The Stormers sliced through the Sharks for a bonus-point win at Kings Park three weeks ago, yet Paarl-born Williams has drawn confidence from the prospect of facing John Dobson’s troops with some support in the stands.
“We’ve spoken about what went wrong against Ulster,” Williams told reporters on Tuesday in a press conference.
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“It is up to us as a group to come together. We have the belief to do it. I know we will have to be a lot better than last week, and also the last time we played the Stormers, but we know what we need to fix.
“As I say, it is all about working together. Before the last Stormers game, we had a few players ruled out during the week and we also know what mistakes we made in that match.
“I see rain is predicted for Saturday, I am not sure if it will coincide with the game, but we are looking forward to the game and I am looking forward to returning to the Cape to see my family. That makes it exciting. I haven’t seen my family for quite a while.”
Williams is resilient, having had to fight his way up the Sharks food chain from club rugby and the SuperSport Rugby Challenge, and has seized his opportunities to start whenever fellow Springbok Jaden Hendrikse is away.
The prospect of earning another callup to the Boks is not lost on the one-Test-capped Williams, especially in a World Cup year, yet is trying to remain focused on the Sharks.
“I don’t feel like [because it is a World Cup year] I have a point to prove. At the moment I am just focusing my energy on the Sharks brand. Then later, if I am selected, I will enjoy it,” he said.
“But I am more Sharks driven at the moment. I just want to deliver top performances for my team.”
On his impressive pace, the Paarl Gimnasium alum added: “I wasn’t an elite athlete when I was young. I developed my speed after school. But I worked hard on my pace after school. I spent some time with a professional athletics coach when I went home to Paarl earlier in my career.
“I did a lot of speed training with him over the off-season break, also lots of hill repeats and things like that. It was really intensive and it was what developed the speed I have today.”
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