VIDEO: Everitt 'will definitely want to prove a point' says Sharks star
SPOTLIGHT: Sharks prop Vincent Koch says Edinburgh head coach Sean Everitt will be heading to Durban with some “extra motivation”.
The Sharks will face Edinburgh in Round 13 of the United Rugby Championship and Everitt’s presence will certainly add some extra spice to the encounter.
The Sharks sacked Everitt towards the end of 2022 after a string of poor performances, but he has found a new lease on life as Edinburgh’s head coach this season with eight wins from their 12 games so far.
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“I can’t really speak about the exit of Sean because I wasn’t here,” said Koch, who made his debut for the Sharks off the bench against Ulster last weekend.
“I’ve been part of teams and when I left, I had to play against them and of course I had extra motivation to perform against them. When he comes here, he will definitely want to prove a point.
“He will psych his players up to a level where he wants it to be.
“At the end of the day, he wants a result as well, so if he can have a nice pre-game chat, he will throw that in there as well.”
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Koch, who is a double World Cup winner with the Springboks, knows that Edinburgh will be significantly strengthened for Saturday’s match as they will introduce several internationals who did not feature in the 21-43 loss to the Stormers.
Some of those stars include South African-born duo Duhan van der Merwe and Pierre Schoeman.
“They rested most of their Scottish internationals so it’s going to be a completely different team to the one that played against the Stormers,” said Koch.
“We analysed the players that might come back and their game plan, but first of all we looked at ourselves and where we can get better as a team.
“For now, we want to deliver the best performance we can deliver. It’s going to be a tough game.
“They will have an international front row and they got an unbelievable loose trio as well.
“They got loads of international players and we know that it’s going to be a tough game, especially after their defeat to the Stormers.
“They are probably going to be angry and a little bit disappointed with their performance and they will want to rectify it against us.
“With Sean being the coach, he is going to come with extra motivation, but we are mainly going to focus on ourselves and we are going to try a give the best Sharks performance we possibly can.”
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