Sharks' destiny still in own hands
The Sharks may have dropped to second on the Super Rugby standings, but they have not given up on a first-place finish.
In fact Director of Rugby Jake White is adamant his team still has their destiny firmly in their own hands – despite the heartbreaking loss to the Stormers in the final match before the June break.
The Waratahs, who face the Highlanders (at home) and Reds (away), have two matches with adversaries that hold the same pitfalls as the opponents the Sharks must dispatch.
The men from Durban, who like the Tahs have already won their conference and are guaranteed a place in the play-offs, face away matches against the Cheetahs and Stormers.
Then, of course, there are a few New Zealand teams lurking – the Crusaders, Highlanders and Hurricanes in third, fourth and fifth places respectively – all within a point of each other.
However, the Hurricanes have a bye in the last round and it means the Sharks require just one point from their two remaining matches to finish ahead of them. The Crusaders and Highlanders meet in the final week of league action, which means one of them is also set to drop a match – leaving the Sharks with just one Kiwi outfit in with a chance of overhauling them.
Despite the perilous road to the knock-out stages, the Sharks boss, White, remains optimistic ahead of this week's trip to Bloemfontein.
"I've spoken a lot about us holding our destiny in our own hands and that's exactly true now still," he said.
"We have two more games and if we win them both, we'll finish in the top two.
"There is always a lot of talk about finishing top of the log, but you still want to win the competition, so there is enough there for us to know we need to work hard to win the competition."
White pointed out that their path to the play-offs will be made easier by the fact that the New Zealand franchises will eliminate some of the competition in the next two weeks.
"At the start of the season, who would have picked the Highlanders and Crusaders to both be on 42 log points at this stage of the competition?" the Sharks Director of Rugby asked.
"It showed again, everyone thought that the Crusaders would win their game [against the Hurricanes last week], and not for any other reason than the Crusaders are usually – at this time of the season – playing really well.
"And the Crusaders still have to play the Highlanders and the Waratahs also have to play the Highlanders, so there are still so many more permutations that can take place in the final two weekends of the pool stages of this competition.
"A lot can still happen."
White said there are always positives and negatives around the long June break.
While some players were rested, others were away on Bok duty," he said, adding: "We lost the last game [against the Stormers] so maybe it was good to have a break.
"But we also now get some of our best players back again, so we're not too worried.
"We get Pat Lambie back soon, Anton Bresler back, so there are a lot of positives to the break as well."
White said Lambie still has to undergo tests to confirm when he will be available to play against the Cheetahs.
