Sharks will retain style against Hurricanes

06 May 2016 - 09:41 By KHANYISO TSHWAKU

Those who thought the Sharks might view Saturday's game against the Hurricanes as a watershed from a tactical perspective could be in for a disappointment.Sharks director of rugby Gary Gold does want a bit more imagination in attack, but not necessarily at the expense of their trench-warfare style.With Chris Boyd's side giving the Lions a stern 50-17 lesson in how not to deal with New Zealand teams last weekend, thoughts Gold had of letting his side express themselves may have been shelved.While he did not want to admit it, Gold seemed to be spooked by the Ellis Park result despite his team's ability to blunt New Zealand sides this season."We're not going to apologise if we win games in the best way that we need to. You have to first stop the New Zealand teams from scoring tries and when you have the ball against them you have to be more clinical in the way you look after it. There are points out there when you play against New Zealand, but it's about getting the balance right. There's a foundation to our game and it has worked out for us," Gold said."The Lions had a better game plan than us when they were here and they beat us 24-9. Regardless of their result on Saturday, they have the ability to play an expansive game and they've shown that. I won't judge how they play because we want to play with a bit of balance. I don't want to go out and talk about what works against New Zealand teams because that borders on arrogance."While Gold has again opted for minimal changes in his matchday 23 with four from that group that just failed against the Chiefs, Pat Lambie's appearance on the bench is bound to bring loud cheers.Dale Chadwick and Kyle Cooper make way for Tendai "Beast" Mtawarira and Franco Marais while Lambie replaces Joe Pietersen on the bench. Coenie Oosthuizen drops out of the 23 with Chadwick moving to the bench.Mtawarira takes the stand-in captaincy reins from Keegan Daniel, but Gold battled to hide his happiness at having the team's official skipper, Lambie, finally play a role this season. Garth April gets his third consecutive start as his star continues to shine."It was sad that Patrick got injured when he did but I think Beast has done a great job in his absence. Our rotation plans have worked and we've been blessed with injuries. Beast will captain on the weekend and as was always the plan, when Pat starts, he'll come back and captain the team," Gold said."I felt I may have made an error by not giving Garth an opportunity in the Currie Cup but Super rugby is a step up. It was important for us to try and introduce him from the bench and the time was right. In terms of his planning in terms of blooding him, it worked and when we thought the time was right, he stepped up to the plate."..

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