The Sharks side to take on the Blue Bulls in their opening Currie Cup fixture at Kings Park on Saturday features six Springboks in the starting XV.
The Bulls opened their account last weekend with a victory over Free State and Sharks scrum-half Louis Schreuder believes that the importance of starting the Currie Cup well cannot be overstressed.
“It’s just one round with six games and the first is at home which we’re looking forward to, but we know we can’t afford not to win our home games,” he explains. “We want to start well and after the warm-up game against Bordeaux, we are in a good place but know there is a massive challenge ahead of us this week against the Blue Bulls.
“The Bulls are a very good team, I think they’re going to be very competitive in the Currie Cup. We watched their game against the Cheetahs last week when they did very well in Bloemfontein against a strong outfit, a Pro 14 team.”
Schreuder is one of a number of players with Super Rugby experience behind them and there is no shortage of Test match experience either. Those players will provide calm heads for the younger players who will bring youthful exuberance too the team.
Indeed Schreuder, Robert du Preez, Lwazi Mvovo, Daniel du Preez, Chiliboy Ralepelle and Curwin Bosch are all capped by the Boks and make this a strong Sharks team.
With the men from Durban having reached the final last year, there is only one way to improve and that’s winning the tournament. But the team isn’t feeling the pressure of expectation based on previous history.
“We’re not really focusing on last season,” Schreuder explains. “We have our own expectations and goals, but right now we can’t think semi-finals or finals, we have to get through the pool stages and win as many games as possible. We’ll be looking to get as many points as possible to get ourselves into a good position for the knock-out rounds. But that’s in the back of our minds.”
And the 28-year-old says that the Sharks are ready for the campaign ahead.
“We had a good break after Super Rugby, a time to refresh, rest the body and importantly, get the mental break after a long tournament. We’ve come back and been training hard, but not overtraining, more functional stuff.
“It was good to get a warm-up match under our belts and build a bit of momentum going into this weekend,” added Schreuder.
Sharks: 15 Curwin Bosch, 14 Kobus van Wyk, 13 Jeremy Ward, 12 Marius Louw, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Robert du Preez, 9 Louis Schreuder, 8 Daniel du Preez, 7 Tyler Paul, 6 Wian Vosloo, 5 Hyron Andrews, 4 Gideon Koegelenberg, 3 John-Hubert Meyer, 2 Chiliboy Ralepelle (c), 1 Juan Schoeman
Replacements: 16 Kerron van Vuuren, 17 Khutha Mchunu, 18 Andrew Evans, 19 Lubabalo Mtembu, 20 Cameron Wright, 21 Johan Deysel, 22 Aphelele Fassi
Date: Saturday, August 25
Venue: Kings Park, Durban
Kick-off: 15:00 local (13:00 GMT)
Referee: Marius van der Westhuizen
Assistant referees: Archie Sehlako, Vusi Msibi
TMO: Christie du Preez