At the risk of tempting fate for the Sharks

At the risk of tempting fate for the Sharks, one of the quirks of Super Rugby is the Sharks’ brilliant record against the Blues, who they have beaten six times in a row since Kevin Putt’s team lost heavily in Auckland in 2005 – including a semi-final win in Durban in 2007 and three wins on New Zealand soil.
What does that come down to, considering the Blues have always been packed with talent? Coach John Plumtree says the quality in the Blues team always brings the best out of his charges.
“The boys see it as a real challenge. You know what the South African players are like against the Kiwis – they enjoy the confrontation,” he said. “Apart from that, there are certain things we know we have to do against them, which I am not going to elaborate on in the press, but suffice to say that if you want to stop them playing well, you need to be organised and get your detail right in the game plan, and that’s been our focus over the last couple days.”
The Blues certainly pose a very different challenge to the Cheetahs of last week, who offered nothing other than a hoof-and-hope strategy. Their backs were not used at all but the Blues back division will be gainfully employed on Saturday, make no mistake.
“The Blues are chock-a-block full of All Blacks and have so much X-factor out wide, as they always do,” Plumtree said. “You look at attacking ability (of the back three) of Joe Rokocoko, Rene Ranger and Isaia Toeava, while in the midfield there are exiting players in Jared Payne and Benson Stanley, and then at flyhalf Stephen Brett has a number of Super Rugby campaigns behind him, plus Alby Mathewson is a quality scrumhalf and an All Black, so their backs are outstanding. If we kick poorly they will hurt us on the counter-attack and if we turn ball over, they’ll hurt us with width. They are all good steppers, so it’s the same speech I’ve prepared every year when we play the Blues.”
As far as the Sharks are concerned, Plumtree said that late calls will be made on injury worries in John Smit, Jacques Botes, Charl McLeod and JP Pietersen. Smit (calf) and Pietersen (hamstring) did not play against the Cheetahs.
“JP is looking better and Charl (calf) will do some jogging today. He’s improving and we’re expecting him to make it for the weekend,” said the coach.
That means the only two squad members out of the picture this week are Jean Deysel and Ross Skeate, both of whom are expected to be ready for the tour opener against the Force next week in Perth.

by Mike Greenaway www.iol.co.za