Sharks coach Sean Everitt says his fast-improving charges are still a work in progress

Sharks coach Sean Everitt says his charges are still a work in progress but has admired how they developed during their successful Australasian tour.

How far they’ve really come as a unit‚ especially as a forward pack‚ will be tested when they face the Jaguares at Kings Park on Saturday in their first home game since the first week of the tournament.

The Sharks pack was tested by the Reds‚ who were also put through the thresher by the Jaguares in an earlier league fixture.

The Jaguares had the better of the Bulls pack in a comfortable win last week.

“We’ve been criticised over the past five games in that our set-piece hasn’t performed in the manner in which it should.

"I thought there was a big improvement against the Reds but the Jaguares has a Test pack‚ so we have to be up for the challenge‚” he said.

“We know we’ve improved‚ but we’re not where we want to be. In the games they’ve played‚ they’ve used the maul effectively.

"They came back from a big deficit against the Reds to win the game‚ so they’re a threat. We defended the Reds’ maul extremely well and I think it’s one of the reasons we won the game.”

The Sharks will have S’bu Nkosi back from injury and Makazole Mapimpi back from a week’s rest for Saturday’s encounter.

Loose forwards James Venter and Tyler Paul beef up the Sharks pack ahead of a forward battle that should decide the outcome.

While the Sharks have to deal with the slight fatigue of an overseas tour‚ they won three out of four matches.

The Jaguares though have been in South Africa for three weeks and in the Bulls game it showed they’d come to terms with South African conditions.

Last year’s visit was also a fruitful one for the Jaguares when they crushed the Sharks 51-17.

The Sharks are a different breed this year‚ with Everitt saying the tour did them a world of good.

“We always want to be performance driven and in the three games we did win‚ we performed really well in attack and defence. That’s what it takes to win rugby matches‚” Everitt said.

“We’ve learnt from the mistakes of the Hurricanes game and we haven’t repeated them. It’s just a case of getting better and better.”

Teams:

Sharks:

15 Aphelele Fassi‚ 14 Sibusiso Nkosi‚ 13 Lukhanyo Am (C)‚ 12 Andre Esterhuizen‚ 11 Makazole Mapimpi‚ 10 Curwin Bosch‚ 9 Louis Schreuder‚ 8 Sikhumbuzo Notshe‚ 7 Tyler Paul‚ 6 James Venter‚ 5 Hyron Andrews‚ 4 Ruben van Heerden‚ 3 Thomas du Toit‚ 2 Kerron van Vuuren‚ 1 Ox Nche.

Replacements:

16 Craig Burden‚ 17 Juan Schoeman‚ 18 John-Hubert Meyer‚ 19 Le Roux Roets‚ 20 Henco Venter‚ 21 Sanele Nohamba‚ 22 Jeremy Ward‚ 23 Madosh Tambwe.

Jaguares: TBA

Referee: Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa)

Assistant referees: Egon Seconds (South Africa)‚ Aimee Barrett-Theron (South Africa)

TMO: Joey Klaaste-Salmans (South Africa)