Johannesburg – Thomas du Toit is growing in stature as the captain of the Sharks and he showed that by choosing his words carefully when asked what he would say to those who regard the Bulls as favourites for Saturday’s URC quarter-final against the Durban team.
“Understandably, many people feel the Bulls will beat us on their home ground, they are the clear favourites and we recognise that, but then there are also a number of people who will feel that we are the favourites,” he grinned during an on-line media conference on Tuesday.
“The Bulls have been in their stride for some time now while we at the Sharks have had a few hiccups along the way but we know what we are capable of and we haven’t done too badly against the Bulls in recent times,” Du Toit added.
He is alluding to the fact that the Sharks have, in fact, beaten the Bulls in the two URC games they have played in this competition — in Durban last December and then in Pretoria in the game in which Morne Steyn was red-carded.
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“Every match is literally a new ball game but yes we take a level of confidence out of those games, but not too much confidence because we know how difficult it was to beat them.”
Du Toit then expounded on just what makes the Bulls so difficult to beat these days.
“They are not the one-dimensional team they used to be,” the captain said. “In the past, you used to have a good idea of what they were going to do but they now have variations to their game.
“For example, they have variations in their lineout mauls, they mix it up. And they have a solid set scrum and they vary how they attack from that. They have more arrows in their quiver than they used to have and there is now an unpredictability about them which means you have to be on your toes all the time.”
Having said that, Du Toit feels the Sharks have the forward pack to put pressure on the Bulls.
“This game is going to be about how we can pressurise them and we have the combinations to do that, for instance in our front and back rows,” Du Toit continued. “We have also been getting reward up front so obviously it is going to be a heck of a battle up front.”
Du Toit said that while playing at altitude is something the Bulls and their coach Jake White in particular, like to believe is a major advantage, the Sharks are only too happy to be on South African soil.
“First prize for us in the quarter-finals would obviously be to host one on Durban but then it looked like we were going back to Ulster, so to end up playing South Africa is a very nice second prize,” he concluded with another big grin.
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