Sharks coach Sean Everitt says the Sharks learnt a lot from the disappointment of a mediocre first United Rugby Championship (URC) season with a star-studded squad, and improvements can be expected in 2022-23.
The Sharks crashed out of the quarterfinals of the first URC with a narrow defeat to the Bulls away from home.
The Durban franchise kicks off its new URC campaign against Zebre at Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi in Parma, Italy on Friday evening (6.30pm SA time).
Lack of consistency from the Sharks contributed to the indifferent first season for Everitt’s Springbok-packed side.
He believes things will improve this time around as the Sharks now have a better idea of what they are up against and the terrain of Europe and the URC.
Another positive aspect is they zoomed into their struggles and planned for the new season using them as a guide.
“After our URC review at the end of last season, there were certain things we had to work on,” Everitt said.
“The challenge we faced in the URC last season was obviously going into the unknown. The guys are a bit aware now of what to expect.”
The Sharks will have to do without a number of their Boks for the first half of the season, who will be on national team duty in the Rugby Championship, which ends this weekend, and then the year-end tour of Europe.
“We are playing against teams that have their full international complement available, so we are under no false illusion of what is expected from us. I think that experience [of playing without their Boks] last year was good for us,” Everitt said.
“For the areas we needed to work on with new coaching staff, the preseason has helped us with our problems we needed to sort out.
“We know that the breakdown in this competition is unforgiving, so it’s the area we focused on, plus as the accuracy and execution of set-piece attack and phase play.”
Apart from missing their national team stars, the Sharks were also not able to select 11 of their players due to injuries for the opening clash against Zebre, including last season’s primary flyhalf Curwin Bosch, Lionel Cronje, Vincent Tshituka and Henco Venter.
However, Everitt is confident the side he selected can do the job in Parma.
“The makeup of our team is based on the preseason friendlies. You talk about a young team — yes, we do have a long list of injuries of guys who are coming back and recovering from surgeries.
“They are not with us, but we believe we have prepared well in the off-season and it’s the team that can do the job for us here in Europe.”
New boys Rohan Janse van Rensburg, starting at outside centre; Carlu Sadie and Justin Basson, both on the bench, will make their debuts for the Sharks.
Sharks Team: 1. Ntuthuko Mchunu 2. Kerron van Vurren 3. Thomas du Toit (captain)
4. Gerbrandt Grobler 5. Reniel Hugo 6. James Venter 7. Dylan Richardson
8. Phepsi Buthelezi 9. Grant Williams 10. Boeta Chamberlain 11. Thaakir Abrahams
12. Ben Tapuai 13. Rohan Janse van Rensburg 14. Werner Kok 15. Aphelele Fassi
Replacements: 16. Dan Jooste 17. Dian Bleuler 18. Carlu Sadie 19. Justin Basson
20. Sikhumbuzo Notshe 21. Cameron Wright 22. Fred Zeilinga 23. Marnus Potgieter
