Sharks to marry kicking to attack
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Scrumhalf Cobus Reinach believes that the Sharks have set a good platform to grow from for both their kicking and their ball in hand attack after two rounds.
The Sharks may have gone down to the Cheetahs in Round One, and by their own admittance, it was their execution that let them down.
However, especially in comparison to last year's tactic of kicking the life out of teams only to strangle out a win, the Sharks showed some fantastic attacking ability as they scored a try from their own 22-metre line.
Against the Lions at a flooded Kings Park the Durban-based team would have been foolish to attempt a continuation of this ball in hand game plan and opted rather for a kicking masterclass led ably by Reinach and Pat Lambie.
A four-try bonus point followed with one of those tries coming thanks to a skilful Lambie cross-field kick onto wing Odwa Ndungane.
Reinach now believes that the Sharks will have to expand on both their kicking game as well as their ball in hand game in order to get a balance if they are to beat the Bulls at Loftus on Saturday."I think we did quiet well kicking wise and we controlled that game [against the Lions] territorially – I think we out-kicked them," Reinach said of last week's match.
"We are hoping for dry weather at Loftus, then we can play a bit more rugby, but if it comes down to it and it becomes a kicking game we will be prepared.
"But it is the Bulls and they do have a massive kicking game, I think they invented the kicking game!
"We have to be accurate in what we do."
The scrumhalf is clearly eager for ideal conditions for his team to be able to execute their ball in hand game but he is still confident that they can go for the jugular regardless of the weather.
"If the weather allows us we would love to tie together our kicking and ball in hand game to reach a good balance against the Bulls," he added.
"If it does not, and the conditions call for something else, we are going to have to use our kicks as part of our attack."
"We can take what we did last week [against the Lions] and improve upon it, I wouldn't say that our kicking game against the Lions would be seen as a warm-up to match the Bulls kicking game, but it is a starting point for us to improve on.
"We are a performance-based team so we will have to lift our game.
"I think we can take our intensity a lot further, this is only the beginning – we took it up quiet a few steps from the first week and we are looking to do that every week from now on."
By Darryn Pollock
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