VIDEO: Curwin's big job against B&I Lions
SPOTLIGHT: Sharks head coach Sean Everitt says his team will be relying heavily on Curwin Bosch’s experience and game management when they face the British and Irish Lions in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
Bosch, 24, is the only player in the Sharks’ matchday squad with Test match experience and has been tasked with exploiting any opportunities his team will get against a powerful team.
“Curwin has led our team in terms of game management and attack over the last 12 months and he has done it really well,” said Everitt.
“Yes, the pressure will fall on him to direct the team. We also got some experienced guys in the midfield like Jeremy Ward and Marius Louw to help [scrumhalf] Jaden [Hendrikse], who is a young No.9 in a game like this.
“Curwin is a leader in his own right. Although he is not the captain, he does generally run the show.”
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Everitt believes Wednesday’s game is an opportunity for Bosch to put his hand up for Springbok selection, should there be any injuries.
“Curwin just has to manage the game correctly. Game management in games like this is very important.
“We know that they [B&I Lions] don’t give you too much, so it is about exploiting the opportunities we get and most of those will come from Curwin.
“We need to manage the game well in our own half. We can’t and throw the ball around and expect things to happen for us.
“We got to make sure that we are accurate and execute well.
“If Curwin executes his kicking game well and puts his outside backs away well, he could be called up to the Boks.
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Meanwhile, the Sharks have brought in the experienced Akvsenti Giorgadze as a scrum consultant for a couple of months.
The former Georgian international has extensive knowledge of playing and coaching in Europe.
“He comes with a lot of experience. He was the scrum coach for the French national team,” said Everitt.
“We felt that with the issues we had at scrum time that it would be good for us to focus on that area. We were using Daan Human as a consultant, but now he is full-time with the Boks, so he is not available.
“It is just a good opportunity for us to bring someone in and hopefully he can add something different.
“We are always looking to develop our players and get knowledge in from outside our borders to see where we can improve, and this is just an example of where we want to go.”
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