Gold demands strong Super Rugby finish
Cell C Sharks director of rugby Gary Gold wants his team to hit their straps in their final Super Rugby clash of the regular season.
The Sharks kept their playoff hopes alive with a plucky 26-10 win over the Cheetahs in Durban on Saturday night.
Early evening rain showers
made conditions slippery at Kings Park, denying fans of what promised to be a
free-flowing match.
Instead, both teams had to play closer to the trenches and kick for territory – which left little to write home about in terms of performance. Nevertheless the Sharks claimed a crucial victory, which has them ahead of the Bulls in the African conference and in the wild-card playoff spot.
While Gold lamented what was far from a clinical performance, the result provided some much-needed relief after a stressful week. The Sharks were coming off a drubbing from the Lions last weekend and had to beat the Cheetahs to keep their playoff hopes alive.
Boxes ticked, Gold was able to take stock ahead of their final clash of the regular season. His team managed to secure an important result without a number of their big name players and a couple of youngsters continued to cut their teeth at Super Rugby level.
With all of that in mind, Gold stressed the importance of producing a clinical performance against the Sunwolves this coming Friday.
“It is important. It’s my first time, being in Super Rugby, where we’ve had such a long break. It was unchartered waters for us and I think the Lions did particularly well when they came out firing last week,” Gold said, referring to the June Test window.
“We’ve been stuttering – that is probably the best word to use. I’m happy the character came through but we need a proper performance next week. We need to come out and be clinical in what we do because that will give us confidence going into the last round.
“We have to realise that this is a Sunwolves team that we can beat but I don’t think winning the game is good enough, we need to put a clinical performance together like we were doing when we played in New Zealand – clinical, error-free performances.”
“We need to put them to the sword, that is our challenge,” Gold insisted.
The Sharks boss was under no illusion of the magnitude of the Cheetahs clash earlier this week. Only a win would salvage their season and history proves that the Cheetahs are a bogey-side for the Durbanites.
“If we had slipped up, and we spoke about it this week about it being a potential ‘banana-skin’, everything we had done for the last 13 weeks would have been in tatters quite honestly,” Gold said.
“The whole season could have come crashing down so it was hugely significant first and foremost to come back from last week’s disappointment and secondly to stay in the hunt ahead of the Bulls.”
“That wasn’t a performance for us to feel like we’ve achieved anything, we’ve got a lot of hard work to do and we want to stay grounded with the Sunwolves. They’ve got nothing to lose and teams in that position can be dangerous.”
The Sharks host the Sunwolves on Friday, July 15 at Kings Park.
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