It goes without saying that South African Super rugby teams do not have the best of records when it comes to playoffs in New Zealand.They have all come back with their tails between their legs, smarting from heavy defeats.The Sharks have bucked trends this season, not only through their attritional game plan, but how they have absorbed the New Zealand teams.They face the daunting challenge of a trip to face the Hurricanes in Wellington on Saturday morning.They departed yesterday.Though two wins from five matches against New Zealand opposition is not worth writing home about, the manner in which they forced the teams to do all the running and still lose by narrow margins is worth noting.Maybe they could give new CE Gary Teichmann something to celebrate to start off his tenure.He will be unveiled as John Smit's replacement at Kings Park today.Sharks director of rugby Gary Gold is aware that there will be no repeat of the Sharks' best performance of the season when they beat the Hurricanes 32-15 at home."We know we can beat them if we play well and when we beat them here I think we played particularly well that day but a playoff game is going to be a different kettle of fish."Their performance on the weekend against the Crusaders was outstanding and they have played very well so far," Gold said.If the Hurricanes were to be judged on the performance against the Brumbies in the first weekend of the tournament, it would have been difficult to punt them as potential play-off material.They copped a 52-10 hiding in Canberra but somehow the team found form to finish top of the New Zealand conference.Gold knows the Hurricanes are a far better team than the one that started the season."I think we've prepared nicely for the quarterfinal in that regard," Gold said...