Fiery Lions no surprise for White
Sharks boss Jake White says he has not been surprised at all by the promising start the Lions have made to the Super Rugby season on their re-entry to the competition.
The Johannesburg franchise won their first two games this year after a year in the Super Rugby wilderness, and White told the Sharks website that he had expected a strong start from them despite many pundits having written them off as tournament whipping boys.
"The Lions epitomise everything about South African rugby: everyone was talking about how surprised they were about how competitive the Kings were this time last year, and now they're saying it about the Lions.
"The South African psyche is this: the guys who have their backs against the wall and are desperate to do well, whether it's a national or provincial team, or a team that has just come into the tournament, it's almost a given that that's how they will perform," he explained.
After starting the season with victories over the Cheetahs and Stormers, coach Johan Ackermann's side went down to the Bulls at a wet Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, and White said that their fighting performances so far indicate the strength in depth in South African rugby.
"Their competitiveness also shows the depth in South African rugby. People thought with all the new guys, the Lions would be no-hopers, but they went and defeated the Stormers by a massive amount of points, and winning a real do-or-die fight against the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein which is also quite tough.
"They knocked over a team like the Stormers who everyone rated as one of the top teams in South Africa and they beat the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein. In those two weeks they showed they can compete," he said.
The Sharks are yet to lose a game this season and should be refreshed after their bye last week, but White made it clear that his side will be taking nothing for granted when they face the Lions this weekend.
"What they have shown us is that you can't take them lightly and you can't go into the game thinking it's just going to happen. For us it's about what we do this week in the build-up to the game to give ourselves a fair chance," he said.
Despite his team's encouraging start to the season, White insists that they are still developing as a unit and should get better as the competition unfolds.
"It's early days in the competition still, there will always be things you have to work on in your game. What I can take out of our two performances so far that are really positive is that we played two very different teams.
"One a forward dominated team in week one when we played really well and scored four tries. And then played a backs dominated game in week two against the Hurricanes who offer threats that are so vastly different to the Bulls, and we managed to keep them tryless.
"That meant that we not only defended well around the rucks against the Bulls and stopped them with their forward dominating game, we were also good enough to defend wide and cut the Hurricanes off in the wide channels. That's always nice because it means there is an understanding about how we can adapt our game," he explained.
The former Springbok coach said that the next four weeks will be an important period in the context of the Sharks' season as they look to build on their positive start.
"We have a tough run coming up with the Lions and Reds, and then the Bulls up at Loftus before we host the Waratahs who are one of the biggest teams in the competition," he said.
